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O. W- Lowe.

HISTORICAL AND

BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

CONTAINING A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FROM ITS EARLIEST

SETTLEMENT TO THE OPENING YEAR OF THE

TWENTIETH CENTURY

J. M. GUINN, A.M.

Secniary of the Historical Society of Sou t hern California. Member of the Ai,
Historical Association of U'ashi?igton, D. C.

ALSO CONTAINING BIOGRAPHIES OF WELL-KNOWN CITIZENS OF

THE PAST AND PRESENT

CHAPMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY

CHICAGO

CHAPMAN PUBLISHING CO.

PREFACE.

SDL'TIIliRX C.\L]I'"( )RNIA is neither a geographical nor a political subdivision of the
state of L'alifornia. Generally speaking, it refers to the seven southern counties, viz.:
San Diego. Orange, Ri\'erside, San Rernardino, Los Angeles, \"entura and Santa Barbara; yet
there is no good reason why it might not take in two or three more counties. In the so-called
I'ico Law of 1851), "granting the consent of the legislature to the formation of a dififerent govern-
ment for the southern counties of the state," San Luis Obispo and all the territory now com-
prising Kern were included within the boundaries of the proposed new state of Southern Cali-
fornia. ,

The plan of the historical part of this work includes — first a general history of what is usually
designated as Southern California, beginning with its discovery and continuing through the Span-
ish and ]\Iexican eras into the American period to the subdivision of the state into counties ;
— second a history of each county of Southern California from the date of its organization to
the present time.

The author has endeavored to give a clear, concise and accurate account of the most impor-
tant events in the history of the section covered. The reader will find in it, no laudations of
climate, no advertisements of the resources and productions of certain sections, no pufifs of
individuals or of private enterprises. However interesting these might be to the individuals
and the localities praised, they are not history and therefore have been left out.

In compiling the history of the Spanish and Mexican eras I have taken Bancroft's History
of California as the most reliable authority.

I have obtained much original historical material from the Proceedings of the Ayuntamiento
or Municipal Council of Los Angeles (1828 to 1846). The jurisdiction of that Ayuntamiento
exlende<l over the area now included in four of the seven counties of Southern California. Con-
sequently the history of Los Angeles in the Mexican era is virtually the history of all the section
under the jurisdiction of its ayuntamiento. This accounts for the prominence of Los Angeles in
the earlier portions of this volume.

The names of the persons interviewed and the lists of books, periodicals, newspapers and
manuscripts consulted in the preparation of this work w'oukl be altogether too long for
insertion here. To the authors from whom I have quoted, credit has been given either in the body
of the work or in foot notes. To the jiersons who have given mc verbal or written inforination
I return my sincere thanks.

J. JNL GUINN.

Los Angeles, October 12, 1901. wov^O^

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART KIRSX.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER I

Spanish Discoveries on the Pacific Coast of North America 33

Spanish Enterprise and Adventure — Scurvy, the Scourge of the Seas — Hernan Cortes — •
Fortuno Ximenez discovers Baja California — Origin of the name California — Discovery of
the Rio Colorado — Ulloa's Voyage — Coronado's Return dispels the Myths of Quivera and
the Seven Cities of Cibola — Mendoza sends Cabrillo on a Voyage of Discovery to the North-
west Coast.

CHAPTER n

The Discovery of Nueva or Alta California 35

Cabrillo's Voyage — Discovery of the Bay of San Diego — Islands of San Salvador and Vitoria,
now Santa Catalina and San Clemente — Bay of San Pedro — Santa Barbara Islands — Death
of Cabrillo — Return of his Ships— Drake's Voyage through the Straits of Magellan-
Plunders Spanish Settlements on the South Pacific Coast — Search for the Straits of Anian —
Refits his Ship in a California Harbor — Takes possession of the Country for the English
Sovereign — Names it New Albion — Return to England — Sebastian Viscaino's Voyage —
Changes the names of the bays and islands discovered by Cabrillo — First Boom Literature —
Failure of Viscaino's Colonization Scheme. His death — Las Californias still believed to be
;.n island — Father Kino's Explorations in 1700 dispels this fallacy.

CHAPTER HI

Mission Coloniz.^tion

Spain's System of Colonizing— Fear of English and Russian Aggression— Four Expeditions
sent to Nueva California— Settlement at San Diego— Portola's Expedition sets out for
Monterey — Discoveries — General Plan of the Missionary Establishments, Location and
Government — Industrial Training of the Neophytes — San Gabriel under Zalvidea — What
was accomplished there.

CHAPTER IV

Indians of Southern Cm. iforni.\

Inferiority of the California Indian— Indian Towns— Vang-na— Indians of the Los Angeltb
Valley— Hugo Reid's Description of their Government— Religion— Marriage— Burials— Feuds
—Song Fights— Utensils— Mythology— Myths— Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel—
Chupu the Channel god— A Revelation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V
Fkaxciscan Missions in Southern California 46

Location of the Missions — Condition of the Buildings now — Founding of San Diego de

Aleala — Destruction of the Mission Buildings by Indians — Murder of Father Jaunie — Mis-
sion Statistics — San Gabriel Arcangel — Disreputable Soldiers — Mission Moved to a new-
Site — Statistics — San Juan Capistrano — Failure of the first attempt — Mission re-established— •
Karlhquake of 1812 — Destruction of the Church and Loss of Life — Mission Secularized.
San Buenaventura — Channel Missions Damaged by Earthquake — Mission Garden — Santa
Barbara — Delay in Founding — Damages by Earthquake — Mission rebuilt — Statistics — La
Purisima — New Plan of Mission Management — Church Destroyed by Earthquake — Revolt
of the Indians— Statistics— San Fernando — Large death rate— Treaty of Cahuenga— San Luis
Rey — Flourishing Mission — Father Peyri — The Asistencia of Pala — Santa Inez — Effects of
the Earthquake — Indian Revolt — Chiefs Shot.

J* ^ Jt

CHAPTER VI

The Presidios of Sax Diego and Santa Barbara 52

The Presidio in Colonization — The founding of the Presidio of San Diego — Monotony of
Soldier Life— The Fur Traders— The Lelia Byrd— The Hide Droghers— San Diego in 1829—
Don Juan Bandini's Mansion — The Old Presidio in 1836 — Dana's visit in 1859 — The Channel
Missions and Presidio of Santa Barbara — Founding of Santa Barbara — Quarrel between the
Padres and the Comandante — Vancouver's Description of the Presidio in 1793 — Completion
of the Presidio — A Boston Boy — Don Jose de La Guerra y Noriega — Change of Flags —
Santa Barbara in 1829 — As Dana saw it in 1836 — Famhani describes it in 1840 — Population
and Appearance of the Pueblo when Fremont's Battalion took possession of it in 1846.

..« ^ ^
CHAPTER VH

IVjUNDIXG OF THE PuEDLO OF LoS AnGELES 56

Pueblo plan of Colonization — Governor de Neve selects Pueblo sites — Regulations and Sup-
plies for the Colonists — Recruiting Pobladores in Sonora and Sinaloa — Arrival of the Colon
ists at San Gabriel — Founding of the Pueblo de Los Angeles — Names of the eleven heads o''
Families — Derivation of the name of the Town and River — The Indian Town of Yang-na.

CHAPTER Vni

Los Angeles in the Spanish Era 60

The Old Plaza— Area of a Pueblo— Subdivision of Pueblo Lands — Location of the Old
Plaza — Deportation of three worthless Colonists — Final Distribution of Lands to the Colon-
ists in 1786— Government of the Pueblo— Census of 1790— Population in 1810— The "pirate
Buchar" — End of Spain's domination in California.

CHAPTER IX

Transition Period — From Monarchy to Republic 64

Governor Sola a Royalist — Californians Loyal to Spain during the Revolution — Beginnings of
a Government by the People — Population and Resources of the Pueblo of Los Angeles —
Arrival of Foreigners- Life in California in 1829— Slow Growth and Little Progress.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X

Mission Secularization and the Passing of the Neophyte.

Sentiment not History — Spain's purpose in Founding tlie Missions — Mission Land Mo-
nopoly— Decrees of Secularization humane — Regulations Governing Secularization — Slaughter
of Cattle— Reckless Destruction— Ruin of the Missions— Fall of the Neophyte— The Pueblito
— Indian Slaves — The Monday Auction — What became of the Mission Estates — Mortality
among Neophj'tes under Mission rule — Extinction of the Indian inevitable.

CHAPTER XI
A Decade of Revolutions 70

The Storm Centre of Revolutions — Expulsion of Governor Victoria — Death of Avila and
Pacheco — Pio Pico, Governor — Rival Governors, Echcandia and Zamorano — California Split
in two — Governor Figueroa appointed — The Hijar Colony — A Cobbler and a Cigar Maker
head a Revolution — Hijar and Padres arrested and shipped to Mexico — Death of Governor
Figueroa — Los Angeles made the Capital of Alta California — Castro becomes "gefe politico"
— Chico, Governor — Deposed and sent back to Mexico.

CHAPTER XH

El Estado Lir.RE v Soberano de Alta California 74

(The Free and Sovereign State of Alta California^
Causes that led to Revolution — No Offices for the "Hijos del Pais" (native sons) — Revolt
against Governor Gutierrez — Declaration of Independence — Alvarado, Governor of the Free
State — Monterey Plan — Los Angeles opposes it — War between the North and the South —
Battle of San Buenaventura — Los Angeles Subjugated — Peace in the Free State — Carlos
Carrillo appointed Governor by the Supreme Government — Los Angeles the Capital of the
South — Carrillo inaugurated with imposing ceremonies — War again — Capture of Los Angeles
— Flight of Carrillo to San Diego — Battle of Las Flores — Surrender of Carrillo — Alvarado
recognized as Governor by the Supreme Government — End of the Free State.

CHAPTER xni

Closing Years of Mexican Rule 79

The Government in the hands of the Native Sons — Arrival of Trappers from the United
States — The Graham Affair — Arrival of Governor Micheltorena and his Cholo Army — Cap-
ture of Monterey by Commodore Jone.^ — Micheltorena and Jones meet at Los Angeles — Ex-
travagant demands of the Governor — An Army of Chicken Thieves — Revolt against Michel-
torena and his Cholos — Sutter and Graham join forces with Micheltorena — The Picos unite
with Castro and Alvarado — Americans favor Pico — Battle of Cahuenga — Defeat and Abdica-
tion of Micheltorena — Deportation of the Governor and his Army — Pio Pico, Governor —
Looking Backward.

16 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV

MuxrciPAL Government — Muy Ilustre Ayuntamiento 84

But Little Crime in California under Spanish and Mexican Rule — Pueblo Government — The
Most Illustrious Ayuntamiento — That of Los Angeles the best Illustration of a Mexican
Municipal Council — Officers of the Ayuntamiento — Taking the Oath of Office — When Office
Sought the Man — The Public Alarm — Blue Laws of Old Los Angeles — Hygienic rules — The
Pueblito — Municipal revenues — Salaries — Elections — Judges of the Plains.

CHAPTER XV
'I'liii Ho.MEs AND Home Life of Californians in the Adobe Age 89

The Indian Brick-maker — An Architecture without Freaks or Fads — The Adobe Age not
Aesthetic — Leonardo Cota's Plea for Urban Beauty — Reconstruction and Rehabilitation —
Style of Dress in 1829 — No Chimneys for Santa Claus — Filial Respect — Economical Goveni-
ment — Dog Days — No Fire Department and no Police.

CHAPTER XVI
.\couisiTioN OF California by the United States — Capture of Los Angeles

Territorial Expansion — Fremont and Castro — The Bear Flag Revolt — Commodore Sloat
takes possession of California — Castro's Retreat Southward — Review of Affairs at Los
Angeles — The Old Feud between the Uppers and the Lowers — Pico's Humane Proclama-
tion— Stockton at San Pedro and Fremont at San Diego — Their United Forces enter Los
Angeles — Historical Myths.

CHAPTER XVH

jE of Los Angeles 98

Stockton and Fremont Leave Los Angeles — Captain Gillespie in Command of the Southern
Department — Revolt of the Californians — Gillespie's Men Besieged on Fort Hill — Juan
Flaco's Ride — Battle of Chino — Americans Evacuate the City — Retreat to San Pedro — Can-
non thrown into the Bay.

CHAPTER XVHl
Battle of Do.minguez Ranch — Flores, Governor

Authentic account of the Battle by Lieutenant Duvall— Arrival of the Savannah at San Pedro,
Capt. William Mervine, Commanding — Landing of the Troop.s — Gillespie's Men join Mer-
vine— March to Dominguez Ranch— Battle— Retreat of Mervine's Force— Names of the
Killed and Wounded— Dead Buried on Deadman's Island— Names of the Officers in Com-
mand— The Old Woman's Gun — Flores made Governor and Comandante-General — Jealousy
of the Hijos del Pais— Arrest of Flores— He is Released and Rico Imprisoned.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 17

CHAPTER XIX

The Second Conquest of Califorxea 104

Stockton Arrives at San Pedro — Carrillo's Ruse — A Remarkable Battle — Fremont Recruits a
Battalion — Californians Capture Santa Barbara and San Diego — Recapture of San Diego —
Building of a Fort — The Flag Episode — Arrival of General Kearny at Warner's Pass — Battle
of San Pasqual — Commodore Stockton Sends a Force to Relieve General Kearny — Prepara-
tions for an Attack upon Los Angeles — The March — Battle of Paso de Bartolo, or San
Gabriel River — Battle of La Mesa — Small Losses.

CHAPTER XX

Occupation of Los Angeles — Building of Fort Moore 109

Burial of the Dead — Surrender of Los Angeles — The Americans Occupy the City — Unwel-
come Visitors — A Famous Scold — How Stockton Obtained Headquarters — Building of Fort
Moore — Two Forts — Fears of an Invasion — The Mormon Battalion — Colonel Stevenson takes
Command — A Flagstaff for the Fort — The First Fourth of July — Historical Fictions — Fre-

mont's Headquarters.

CHAPTER XXI

Tre.\ty of Cahueng.\ — Transition 114

Fremont's Battalion Arrives at San Fernando — Negotiations — Treaty Signed — Fremont's
Battalion enters Los Angeles — Colonel Fremont appointed Governor — Quarrel between
Stockton and Kearny — Colonel Mason succeeds General Kearny — Colonel Stevenson in Com-
mand of the Southern Department — Ayuntamiento Elected — Civil and Military Authorities
Clash— Stephen C. Foster, Alcalde— The Guard House blown up— Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo — Pio Pico Returns to California — The Second Ayuntamiento.

PART SECOND.

COUNTIES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER XXII

San Diego County.

Organization of the County — Boundaries — Population in 1850 — Indian War of 1851 — Early
History of the County and City Identical — The Old Pueblo — First Survey of the Pueblo Lands
— Area of the Pueblo in 1850 — Origin of New Town — Puenta de Los Muertos — The First
Buildings in New San Diego — The First Wharf — Its Tragic Fate — The Pioneer Newspaper —
Disasters that Befell the Plant — John Phoenix, Editor — A Political Somersault — The
Famous Mill between Ames and Phoenix — The San Diego Herald Dies — Early Steamers —
The First Overland Mail Route— Old Town and New Town in Statu Quo— Dry Years and
Ihe Civil War.

CHAPTER XXIII

S.-VN Diego County (Continued).

THE NEW ERA

Arrival of Alonzo E. Horton — He Buys a Town Site — The Rush to San Diego — Rapid
Growth of New Town — The Horton House — The Texas Pacific Railroad — The Railroad
Act Passed, Great Rejoicing — Boom of 1871 — Some Boom Poetry — Branch Railroads — Fail-
ure of the Railroad — Bursting of the Boom — Gloom — A New Trans-Continental Railroad
Sclienie — Its Success — The Boom of 1S87 — Inflation of Values — New Towns — Collapse of
the Real Estate Bubble — The Boom a Blessing — Development of the Back Country — Sub-
stantial Improvements Made — A Year of Disasters — Recuperation — Riverside County takes
a Slice — Annals of the Closing Years of the Century — Public Schools — The Free Public
Library — The Chamber of Commerce.

OTHER CITIES AND TOWNS

Old Town — National City — Coronado Beach — Occanside — Escondido — Fall Brook — Pala —
Julian — Banner.

CHAPTER XXIV
Lo.s ANGEI.E.S County 131

AREA AND ORGANIZATION

Extent of the Original County — Boundaries — Organization of San Bernardino County — -V
Slice taken off Los Angeles to Make Kern— Orange County Created— No More County
Division— Organization of the Los Angeles County Government— First election— Officers
Elected— Court of Sessions— A County Interpreter- County Prisoners Hired to the City

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Council — First Public Building, a Jail — Jueces del Campo — Patriots of the Pocket — Some
Cliarges — The First Fee Bill — The Office of Supervisor Created — First Board.

THE FIRST DECADE OF THE COUNTY's HISTORY, l8S0 TO 1860

Early Land Grants — Litigation over Grants — Township Boundaries — Immigrants and Over-
land Routes — Sonorese Migration — A Job Lot of Immigrants — A Tricky Alcalde — The
Mexican Route — The Gila Route — The Santa Fe Trail — The Salt Lake Route — Immi-
gration by Southern Routes — Commerce and Conveyances — The Mustang Saddle Train —
The Carreta Freight Train — First Stages — The First Steamer at San Pedro — High Fare
and Freight Charges — Bucking Sailors — Imports and E.xports — High Price of Grapes — ■
First State Census — Small Area under Cultivation — Slow Growth of the County in the 50's.

CHAPTER XXV
Los Ange[.es County (Continued) 137

THE SECOND DECADE, 1860 TO iS/O

A Gold Rush and Gold Placers — Hard Times — The Great Flood of 1861-62 — After the
Deluge — Drought — The Famine Years of 1863-64 — Death of Cattle — Financial Depression
— The Civil War — Decadence of the Cattle Industry — The Stearns Ranches — From Cattle
Raising to Grain Production.

THE THIRD DECADE, 187O TO 1880

Railroads — Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad — The Southern Pacific — Bond Election^
The Great Tunnel — Completion of the Road between Los Angeles and San Francisco — First
train — Los Angeles and Independence Road — Fate of the Santa Monica Wharf — Colonies —
San Pasqual Plantation Scheme — The Indiana Colony — It becomes Pasadena — Rapid Growth
— Pomona — First Auction Sale of Land and Lots — Santa Monica — "The Zenith City by the
Sunset Sea" — Disasters.

THE FOURTH DECADE, 1880 TO 189O

Depression Continues — First Trans-Continental Railroad — Immigration — A New Railroad
Coming — Beginning of the Boom — Town-Making — Homberg's Twin Cities — Unprincipled
Boomers — Magnitude of the Boom — Great Booms of Former Times — Collapse.

FIFTH DECADE, 189O TO igOO

From Boom to Gloom — Increase in Population — Reaction — Bank Panic of 1893 — Spanish
War — The Harbor War — Three Dry Years — Prosperity — Population of Cities and Towns
in 1900.

J^ J* ..t

CHAPTER XXYI

The City of Los Angeles 144

shaping the city
A City Without Form— Urban Expansion— The First Boom— No Written Titles— Land
Commissioner's Report— "Monstrous Irregularity of the Streets"— Area of the Pueblo, "Two
Leagues to each Wind from the Plaza Church"— An Amazed Commission— Wide Streets
Offend the Sense of the Beautiful— Squaring the Plaza— Ord's Survey— Area of the City,
Sixteen Square Leagues— Street Names in Ord's Plan— Charity Street— Adjusting Street
Lines and Property Lines.

AMERICANIZING THE CITY

Incorporated by the Legislature of 1849-50— Reduced Area— Twice Made a City and not
Much of a City Then- The First Election Under American Law— City Officers— Patriotic

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Councilmen— The Indian Question— Auction Sale of Prisoners— A Cily Ordinance that
Favored Poor Lo— Tlie Whipping Post— The Indian Question Settled.

THE POST OFFICE .\ND POST.\L SERVICE

Postal Service in the Spanish Era — In the Mexican Era— First American Mail Service — A
Tub Post Office — Irregular Mails — The Butterfield Stage Route — Los .A.nge!c5 Postmasters.

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL MASTERS

The First School— Mexican Schools and School Masters— First American School— The First
School Ordinance— The Pioneer School House of the City— Prejudice against the Public
Schools — The First High School in Southern California — City School Superintendents —
The Normal School.

CHAPTER XXVII

The City oi- Los Angeles (Continued) 152

crimes and vigilance committees
Turbulence, but few Capital Crimes under Spanish and Mexican Rule — The Defenders of
Public Safety — The First Executions by a Vigilance Committee-»-GoId and Crime — People's
Tribunals — Executions by Vigilance Committees in Los Angeles — The Murder of Sheriff
Barton and Four of His Posse — Extermination of the Flores Gang — The Vasquez Gang — The
Chinese Massacre — The Last Vigilance Conmiittee.

PIONEER NEWSPAPERS

La Estrella de Los Angeles (The Star of Los Angeles) — The Southern Californian — El
Clamor Publico — The Southern Vineyard — The Los .A.ngelcs Daily News.

ANNALS OF THE CITY's GROWTH AND PROGRESS

.\dobe gives Place to Wood and Brick in Building— First Building Boom— Population in
i860— Camel Caravans— The Telegraph— Salt Lake Trade— Union Demonstration— The
Great Flood — A Year of Disasters — Union and Secession — The War Ends and Peace Reigns
—The First Protestant Church— The Great Flood of 1868 Makes a New River— New
Growth— The First Railroad— City Lighted with Gas— First Bank— Population of the City.
1870— The Railroad Bond Question— Bank Panic— Hard Times— Population in 1880— Re-
action—A Rate War— Good Times— The Boom Comes— The Cable Railway— Electric Rail-
ways— Oil Discovery — Oil Boom — City's Expansion by .Annexation — Population in iqoo.

CHAPTER XXVIII
S.'VNTA Barbar.v County ' 5^

ORIGIN OF THE NAME

First use of the Name in Connection with the Mainland— Santa Barbara, Virgin and Martyr.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY

Boundaries— Transition from Mexican to American Forms of Government- Election of
County Officers— County Seal— Sheriff Killed— First County Assessment— Mixing City and
County Offices— Ruling Families— Townships— Board of Supervisors— The County Solidly
Democratic in Politics — The First Court House.

CRIME AND CRIMINALS

Bands of Outlaws— Jack Powers— Ned McGowan— His escape from the Vigilantes— .\ Grand
Jury Report.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

DOWNFALL OF THE CATTLE KINGS

The Feudal Lords of the Land — Stock Ranges Equal to Gold Mines — Overstocked Ranges —
Starvation of Cattle — The Shepherd Kings — Kings no More — The Famine Years end their
Rule — Fatalism — Subdivision of the Great Ranches — Transition Period — Prosperity — The
Southern Pacific Railroad — The Boom — Railroad Gap Closed — Lompoc — Guadalupe — Bettcra
via — Santa Maria — Santa Ynez — Goleta — El Montecito — Summerland — Carpinteria Valley —
The Channel Islands.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

First School — Long Vacations — Schools under Me.xican Rule — Schools after the Conquest
— Little Progress at First — Rapid Advance — High Schools

CHAPTER XXIX
The City of Santa Barbara 165

ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT

Incorporation — First Meeting of the Common Council — City Officials — Lost Records —
Haley's Survey — Wrackenrueder's Map — The Second Council — The Indian Question — An
Ethnic Question — Economical City Government — "A Wide Open Town" — A California
Treat — A Spasm of Virtue — Careless Councils — Pueblo Lands — Street Names — Caiion Perdido
Street — The Lost Cannon Found — Squatter Troubles — The Arroyo Burro Affair — The
Pioneer Newspaper of Santa Barbara — The Gazette a Live Paper — The Gazette Starved to
Death — A Poco Tiempo Town — Tip or Dip.

THE NEW ER.\

Feudalism — Dry Years and Hard Times — .^wakening — Coast Stage Line — Gas Introduced
— Rise in Real Estate — First Bank — Natural History Society — The Public Library — A
Decade of Transition — Population in 1870; in 1880 — Population in 1890 gain of 70 per cent.—
Railroad Building and Projecting — Arrival of the First Passenger Train — A Boom — Sub-
stantial Improvements — Street Paving — Southern Pacific Coast Line Completed — St. An-
thony's College — A Tragedy — The New High School.

CHAPTER XXX
Ventura County 171

BEFORE THE COUNTY WAS CREATED

Al.'sentceisnis — The Old Mission — Battle of San Buenaventura — No American Settlers at
the Time of the Conquest — A Township of Santa Barbara — First Attempt to Form a New
County^State Division — First Survey of a Town Site — Flood of 1861 — Famine Years of
1863 and 1864 — Flood of 1868 — Immigration Drifting Southward — The Coast Stage Line
— San Buenaventura in 1870 — Those Americans arc Coming — A Night Ride over the Moun-
tains— The First Wharf — The Ventura Signal — The Pioneer Newspaper.

ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW COUNTY

Reasons for County Division — No Offices for the Venturians — Election Frauds — The Pop-
ulation of the Proposed New County Mostly American — Failure of the Second Attempt
to Create a New County — The Third Succeeds — Boundaries of Ventura County — The First «

F.lortion and the County Oflicers RIcclcd— The First Court House— Business Activity.

22 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXI

\'i;ntuk.\ County (continued) 176

annals of ventura town and county
School Bonds and New School House — The First Murder in the New County — Library
Association — Another Newspaper — Fire Company — Wreck of the Kalorama — Murder of T.
Wallace More — A Year of Disasters — Wealth and Products of the County in 1879 —
Flood of 1884 — Railroad and the Boom Arrive — Brilliant Outlook — Census of 1890 — Pioneer
Society— Annals of the Past Decade.

CITIES AND TOWNS

Huenenie — Nordhoff — Santa Paula — O.xnard — El Rio — Montalvo — Saticoy — Fillmore — Bards-
dale — Canuilos Rancho — The Oil Industry — Theodosia B. Shepherd Plant and Seed Com-
pany— Islands of Ventura — Anacapa — San Nicolas — The Lone Woman of San Nicolas.

CHAPTER XXXH
Or.\nge County 184

county division
Act Creating the County Passed — Twenty Years of County Division — Anaheim County —
Major Max Strobel's Scheme and Its Failure — Strobel, a Soldier of Fortune and a Victim
of Misfortune — The First Orange County — A County Division Candidate — Wiseman, the
"Broadaxe" — Santa Ana County — Orange County Again — Success.

ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW COUNTY

First Officers — Boundaries and Area — Spanish Ranches — The Rancho Santiago de Santa
Ana — Squatter War — Judge Field's Decision — Schools — High Schools — Court House
— Population of the County — History of the Celery Industry — Cienegas or Peat
Lands — Regarded by the Early Settlers as Waste Lands — Their Drainage and Cultiva-
tion— Wild Celery and Wild Hogs — First Experiment in Celery Culture — Persecu-
tion of the Chinese Laborers — Extent of the Business — The Oil Industry — First Experi-
ments in Well Boring — Rise in Real Estate.

■ CHAPTER XXXHI
Orange County (continued) 189

CITIES AND TOWNS— Anaheim— The Vineyard Colony— Selection of a Site- Ollicers
of the Los .-\ngeles Vineyard Company — Colony Named Anaheim— Improvements Made
— Living Fences — Division of the Land Among the Stockholders — Cost of Land and
Improvements — .\naheiiTi Becomes a City — School House — Newspapers — From Vineyards
to Orange Groves and Walnut Orchards — Churches — Fraternal Societies — City of Santa
.Ana — William II. Spurgeon's Purchase — The First House — The First School — Change of
the Stage Route — Post-oflice Established — Railroad Reaches the Town — Pioneer News-
paper— Pioneer Church Organizations — Fraternal Societies — Banks — The Press — Dennis
Kearney's Waterloo — Orange Originally Richland — Post-olVice Established — First Church
— Tustin — Fullerton — Youngest Town of the County — Important Shipping Point — West-
minster Colony — Garden Grove — Los .Mamitos — P.ucna Park — Newport Beach — Capistrano.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 23

CHAPTER XXXIV

Riverside County 196

first settlements
The Youngest County of Southern CaHfornia — Formed from San Bernardino and San
Diego — First Settlement in San Bernardino County — The Rancho San Bernardino —
Grsnted to the Lugos and Scpulveda — The Jurupa Rancho — Agua Mansa — The Mormon
Trail — Mormon Colony in San Bernardino — The Mormon Leaders Buy the Rancho San
Bernardino — Subdivision of the Rancho — Flourishing Settlement — Recall of the Mormons
to Salt Lake — Sale of the Rancho to Gentiles — A "Stake" of Zion No More — The Colony
iM-a of the Early '70s.

Fl)U.M.\TION OF mVKKSIDE COUNTY

I-"irst .Attempt to Form Riverside County — Second .\ttenipt Succeeds — .\ren and Boundaries
— Diversity of Contour, Climate and Productions — Era of Agricultural E.xperiments — The
Silk Culture Fad — A Sericulture Colony Contemplated — A Colony Site Purchased on the
Jurupa Rancho — Subsidence of the Silk Culture Craze.

THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNI.\ COLONY .\SSOCI.\TtON

The Silk Colony Lands Sold to the Southern California Colony Association — Names of
the Members of the Colony Association — The Town of Jurupa — Riverside — First Arrivals
on the Colony Site — Irrigation — Experiments — The Washington Navel Orange — The Arling-
ton Tract — Magnolia Avenue — Riverside in 1875 — First Railroad Meeting — First Citrus
Fair — Other First Events.

CHAPTER XXXV
.-ERSiDE County (continued) 201

RIVERSIDE WATER SYSTEMS

The Riverside Water Company — The Gage Canal — The Jurupa Canal — The Riverside High-
land Water Company — Population and Wealth.

THE PRESS

The Pioneer Newspaper, The Riverside Weekly News — The Ri\erside Press — The Press
and Horticulturist — The Daily Press — The Daily Enterprise.

CITIES AND TOWNS

Corona— Tcmecula — Ahtrrietta — Elsinore — Perris^Winchcster — Lake View — Henict — San
Jacinto City — Strawberry Valley — Beaumont — Banning — Conchilla \'alley.

SOME TWENTIETH CENTURY EVENTS

.\ New High School — Purchase of a Court House Site — .\ New Jail — Carnegie's Library
Donation — The Sherman Institute.

INDEX.

A Page. Page. Pagp.

Abbott. Calvin W 1263 Baxter. William 734 Brooks, Stephen G 800

Abbott, Frank E 1198 Baxter, William A 734 Broiighton, G. A., M. D 357

Abbott, G. E., M. D 954 Bayha, C.F 919 Broughton, Hon. H. A 662

Adams, George B 810 Beach, Eliza J., M. D 800 Broughton, W. W 1147

Adams, Frederick K 1275 Beach, Fitz E 739 Browne, Capt. A. W 414

Adams, Hon. John 719 Bean, John H 1046 Bruce, William N 436

Adams, John L 1039 Beck, Edwin A 370 Brundage. Hiram 436

Adams, R. D., M. D 1248 Beckett, W. W., M. D 1276 Bruner. F. M., M. D 1198

Adams, William L 1207 Beckwith, Charles 1261 Bryant, E. T 439

Akers, W. H 554 Beckwith, Francis 738 Bryant, William 1142

Akey,' James V 564 Beckwith, Francis J 275 Bryson, Hon. John, Sr 1274

Alexander, George 559 Begg, James 812 Buckingham, Joseph A loio

Alexander, William 560 Belcher, Avery 1245 Buckmaster, Thomas H 526

Allen, A. A 558 Bell, Hon. A. J 665 Biiell, A. W 331

Allen, Harry C 648 Bell, Robert 517 Buell, H. J 523

Allen, Hon. M. T 1097 Bell, Robert L 938 Buell, Percy 0 523

Allen, Russell C 954 Bell, Thomas 491 Buffington, A. C 447

Allen, William 806 Benedict, William G 804 Bulla, Hon. R. N 1206

AUgeyer Charles 1180 Benson, George W 1230 Bullard. F. D.. M. D 1015

Althouse, J. A 1040 Bent, Abbott J 1259 Bullis, Philip H 1291

Ames, Henry M 565 Bentzoni, Col. Charles 836 Bullis, William H 839

Amestoy, A. J 1263 Berry, Truman 1265 Burch, Nelson C 740

Anderson, Matthew H 595 Bettner. Robert Lee 1184 Burke. David L 1064

Andrews, Rev. J. B 564 Beveridge, Hon. J. L 1165 Burke, Hon. E. M 393

Androus, Hon. S. N 548 Beyrle, Robert 1052 Burke, Miguel F 393

Ardis, Julius H 1246 Bingham. H. A loii Burns, Robert W 1200

Arenz, Richard 1040 Bishop. F. D.. M. D 1143 Burton, Capt. H. G., M. D 571

Armstrong, A. T 1032 Either, B. Frank D 570 Butcher. W. P 1054

Armstrong, A. W 835 Bixby, A. S 740 Butler, John T 87s

Arnold, Matt H 569 Bixby, Jotham 1009 Butler, Mrs. Mary 875

Arnold, Seth C 835 Blackburn, Capt. D. S 289 r

Asbridge, Thomas A 1041 Blackstock. Judge N 373

Ashley. Mrs. Mary A 451 Blatz. Herman 732 Cadwell. O. N 614

Afchison, J. A 1042 Bleecker. J. J.. M. D 1244 Caldwell, Hon. A. A loio

Atchison, James R 647 Bliss. John D 1232 Callahan. Neal 620

Atkinson. J. W 1208 Blochman. L. E 428 Camarillo, Adolfo 444

Aufdemkamp. Henry 1042 Blood. James A 929 Camarillo, Juan E 840

T, Blosser, Garrett L 1208 Campbell. J. A 1060

Blumberg. Wheeler C 1208 Carder. G. H., M. D 1142

Bacon, A. J., M. D 9^5 Bly, Leonades 1231 Carpenter, Frank J 1187

Bagnard. Gustavus 667 BIythe. B. M 1136 Carpenter, John T 1187

Bailey, Isaac 738 Bolin. P. J 1265 Carpenter. Stephen F 1065

Bailey. Jonathan 532 Boman. Gustav A 1266 Carrion. Julian 918

Bainbridge. J. C, M. D 409 Bonebrake. Major G. H 532 Carter, .\rthur F 426

Baird, J. G.. M. D 1036 Bones. Thomas 613 Carter, Nathaniel C 1258

Bakewell, Thomas 1191 Bonestel, CD 701 Casal. F. M. M. D 1229

Balch, E. T., M. D 395 Bonestel. W. A 428 Cawston, Edwin 722

Balcom, B. G 1190 Bonhani. Perrv P 806 Chaffee, .\rthur L 842

Ball, C. D., M. D 925 Bosshard. Jacob 887 Chaffee. J. D.. M. D ii59

Ballard, Hon. J. W 1184 Bothwell. James 1048 Chaffin. John P 744

Ballon, George H 956 Bouton, Gen. Edward 949 Chambers. Hon. J. C 959

Balslev. B. L 653 Bowker. Harrison M 427 Chambers. John T 1059

Bandini. Juan B 358 Boyd. David C Ii97 Chapman. A. B 327

Banning. Gen. Phineas 1265 Bradford. .Mbert S 757 Chapman. Charles C TO33

Banta-Jones, Mrs. Mary G 721 Bradlcv. Knowlton R 1048 Chapman. Frank M 535

Barber, Hon. P.J 361 Brady. Capt. J. T 1225 Charlebois. Paul 414

Bard, Cephas L.. M. D 243 Brag'don. John R 809 Child, E 1066

Bard, Hon. Thomas R 213 Brainerd. H. G.. U. D 1276 Chippendale. W 884

Barker, Frederic 1 374 Bralev. Edgar R II37 Churchill. John W ' 59.?

Barker. James 834 Brandes. H. E 1112 Clapp. James D 613

Barnes. W. P 830 Breiner. John 1052 Clapp. William B 1228

Barretto, Maxwell K 614 Brcnnan. John 798 Clapp, William T 828

Barrows, Frank P 416 Brewster, J. C 792 Clark, Frank B 1243

Barrows, James A 104S Brian. David 1053 Clark. George E 938

Bartle. J. H 228 Brigden. Albert 804 Clark, Isaac M 620

Bartlctt. William S 882 Bristol. Rev. Sherlock 415 Clark, J. Ross 1012

Bauer, Otmar 1046 Brodrick, William J 595 Clarke, Charles S 444

INDEX.

Page. Page. Pagt.

Clarke, J. F 744 Davies, E. W 1075 Evans, William H 1256

Clarke, Robert M 1143 Davis, Hon. Alonzo E 1273 Ewing, Felix W 341

Cleland, Thomas E 1257 Davis, Frank E nil p

Clifford, A. M 960 Davis, R. W 1093

Cobb Asa 881 Davis, S. F., M. D 667 Fagan, Michael 1105

Coffin, Hon. W. H 674 Dawson. John B 841 Farr, Mrs. E. B 93S

Coffman H. L., M. D 619 Day. Hon. William S 335 Farnngton, George W 961

Coleman, S. J 884 Dean, John J 328 Faulkner, George W 509

Collins, Hon. J. S 410 Deane. John L 1076 Fern, Henry 1018

Collins, W. S 547 De Fluff, Thomas J 668 Fernald, Charles 283

Conaway, Joshua A 497 De La Guerra Family 220 Fessenden, William H 1165

Congdon A. Maria, M. D 799 De Longpre. Paul 222 Fetterman, I. L 1091

Conger, Rev. E. L., D. D.... 1058 del Valle, U. F 413 Filkins, C. W 1189

Conklin, Lombard 57^ Den, Alfonso L 221 Finger, H. J 1088

Conncll, John F 1242 Den, Augustus H 471 Finley. T. R 1129

Conrey, Hon. N. P 881 Denison, Charles B 1292 Fischer, Frederick J 847

Cook, Prof. A. J 955 Densmore. Emmet. M. D 1216 Fisler, Rufus 1255

Cook, George 1112 Densmore, Helen B 1217 Fithian, Major Joel A 249

Cook James 1069 De Riidio. Capt. C. C 457 Fithian, R. Barrett 249

Cook! J. R 1256 Des Granges, Otto 1183 Fithian, J. R 249

Cook, J. W 887 Devine, Robert 577 Fitzgerald. G. P 1161

Cook, O. P 448 Dickey. Ambrose 1200 Fleet, W. H 1106

Cook, R. D 713 Dieterich, Jacob 596 Fleming, Edward J 931

Cooke, Hon. C. F 745 Dilworth, W. D., M. D 725 Fleming, Peter 791

Cool, Mrs. Sarah M 54S Dobbings, J. H 842 Forester, G. W.. M. D 962

Cool, Rev. P. Y 545 Dobie, W. G.. D. M 471 Forrester, E. A 1218

Coons, Benjamin F 1138 Dodge, Col. R. V 462 Foshay, Prof. J. A 1272

Cooper, Ellwood 219 Dodworth. A. R 720 Foster, Edmund B 1179

Cooper, Harvey 912 Dolge. Alfred 869 Foy, Samuel C 1063

Cooper, Joseph W 466 Dolgc. Ernst 870 Francis, John F 1277

Corbett, J. F 1209 Donnell. T. C, M. D 948 Frankland, John G 848

Cordero, E. S 1243 Dotv, R 749 Franklin. Mrs. Peddie 715

Corev, Franklin A 453 Dovev. James H 997 Frary, Frank P 344

Coronel. Don A. F 1029 Dow, R. D 906 Fraser, Allan 310

Coronel, Mrs. M. W. de 1030 Drake, Capt. A. C 623 Fraser, J. C. M. D 1283

Corson, J. B 1098 Dreer. I\Irs. JNIarv 1210 Fraser, William G 1197

Cowan, W. K 1071 Dreher, Peter J 1077 Frazier. Charles H 878

Cowles, N. E 923 Drews, L. W 1156 Freeman, Daniel 1279

Cox, A. M 453 Driffill. Col. T. A 1267 Freeman, Capt. W. W 743

Cox. Hon. J. S 728 Driskill, Jesse 1141 Fremont. John C 530

Craig, R. J 863 Dudley, Benjamin W 572 French. Charles E 1036

Grain, William L 959 Dudley. Thomas H 462 Frost, George 1016

Crane, Emmett C 1108 Duffy, James 472 Fry, A 854

Crane, George G 961 Dunlap, A. H 894 Fry, William C 815

Crane, James H 576 Dunlap, John N 1191 Fo^e, Mrs. Mary S 794

Crane, Jeft'erson L 1 108 Dunn. James T 280 Fuqua, Rev. Isham 853

Crank, F. DeWitt, M. D 666 Dunn. Robert 473 Furlong, R. :M •, 1241

Cravens, Thomas A 576 Dunshee. Rollin 750 q

Crawford, Daniel P 1012 Dutton George F 746

Crawford, J. H., :M. D iy-, Gabbert, Thomas G 461

Cregier, A. V 302 E Gabriel. Joseph 1255

Cross, A. P 373 Gaily, Mary M 727

Cross, Hon. John 454 Eason. J. B 715 Gammon, Arthur 1 1226

Crowell, Caleb T 354 Eason. R 733 Garcelon, Frank. M. D 858

Crowell, Weymouth 487 Edgar, W. F.. M. D 547 Garcelon, George W 589

Crowell, William C 839 Edmunds, Cassius 1292 Gardiner, F. 1 852

Crowther, William 1182 Edwards. S. J 716 Garland, A. A 1117

Cummings, John B 794 Edwards, William B 716 Garretson. Joseph M 477

Cummings, John F 477 Fichholz, Philip 1268 Gates, Lucius D 714

Cummings. M. S 1070 Eldridge. S. Tuston 858 Gavin. Alexander 1218

Cunnane, J. B 389 Elliot, Walter 727 Gaylord. John D 828

Cunnane, T. E., M. D 390 Elliott. T Vincent 728 Gaylord, Robert H 1250

Cunnane, W. B.. M. D 389 Elliott. Robert P S48 Gibbon. Hon. T. E 1276

Currier, Hon. A. T 1012 Elliott. Thomas H 578 Gibbs. James R 726

Curtis, Charles 425 Ellis, Capt. G. F 107S Gibler, Daniel 526

Cushman, E. B 1138 Ellis, H. B.. :M. D 1274 Gibson, Hon. James A 1004

Cutting, T. R 745 Fllis, William D 536 Gibson. Frank A 1225

n Elton. Charles 1051 Gidiicy, CM 714

Emerv. Frederick B 941 Gilbert. Charles S 854

Daggett. Charles D 1072 Emerv. Mrs. Sarah B 94i Glassell. Andrew 1288

Daily, Charles J ii3S Engclhardt. John P 1274 Glassell, Andrew. Sr 237

Dakin, Henry M 1009 Fngstrum, F. 0 1047 Glassell, Hugh 704

Dandy, Charles P .369 Eppinger. J. A 1228 Glassell, William T 751

Daniels, Capt. M. J 853 Erickson. John 1072 Glauber, Rev. Ludger 710

Darby, John H 97i Esterlv. Llovd H 1203 Glowner. G. G 1288

Davenport, D. L 540 Fvans. Miss Fliz.ibcth P 75i Gochenauer & Fiset, M. D 1113

Davidson, Stephen M O71 Evans. John M 1268 Goetz, Henry X 859

INDEX.

Page. Page. Page.

Golish, T. A 1045 Hazzard, Augustus C 323 Johnson, Hon. C. F. A. -iic

Goiter, Edward 846 Heartwell, James F 578 Johnson, J. W ' 1286

Goodale, O. E 677 Heath, Col. Russel 1005 Jones, Mrs. A. W " 1084

Goode, George W 704 Hebbard, Arthur H 968 Jones, B. E 906

Goodridge, Ira C 1227 Heim, Ferdinand A 979 Jones, Gen. Johnstone 1281

Gower, George T 1233 Hein, J 465 Jones, Mrs. M. G. B '. 721

Granger. Charles H 1114 Heiss, William A 683 Jones, Otho M 1148

Grant, .A.lexander 1201 Hellman, Herman W 1188 Jones, Hon. Robert F 1^56

Grant, William R 708 Helmcr, Mrs. H. G 697 Judkins, George W. ....'..'.'.. 2^0

Graves. Frank 297 Henderson, Edward, M. D.... 317 Judson, Homer W 540

Gray, William M 907 Henderson, William 311 Julian, William B ". 942

Greeley, John P loio Hennion, Frank R 680 Juvinall, D. E 768

Green, Elisha K 703 Herring. G. W 1163 -^^

Green, Mary J., M. D 1278 Hess, William J 1120 '^

Green, Hon. P. M 226 Hetebrink, Henry 1183 Kahles, Frank 529

Greenwell. A. C 709 Hewitt, John J 781 Kahn, Lazard 259

Greenwell, Hon. C. B 1088 Hill, George W 846 Kanouse, Theodore D 1220

Greenwell, Capt. W. E 473 Hill, James A 240 Kelscy, Theodore A 6q?

Gregg, Robert J., M. D 966 Hill, John G 737 Kiler, J. P :'.::::; 488

Gregory, Albert 752 Hill, Samuel 833 Kimball, Warren C •142

Griffith, Alfred P 1273 Hinman, Elliott 883 Kimmell, W. E 859

Griffith, Rev. E. P 540 Hirsch, George F 944 King, C. E 1107

Griffith, Griffith J 1277 Hlavin, Louis 1251 King, Charles L., M. D 691

Grimes, Charles 617 Hoar, C. E 696 Kinney, Hon. Abbot 1273

Grinnell, Fordyce, M. D 697 Hockett, L. D., M. D 893 Kitchen, George 1202

Guinn, James M 279 Hoeppner, Herman 756 Klamroth, Hon. H. H 707

Guthridge, C. F 710 Hoffman, Abel P 1211 Klasgj'e, J. W 1082

Gwaltney, Sylvester, M. D.... 1224 Hoffman, J. H 1233 Klassen, Michael 324

Gwaltney, J. S., M. D 1224 Hohl, Lawrence 317 Koepke, Henry 1287

TT Holcomb. Rev. F. R 1199 Koopman, William H 260

"■ Holland, L. T., M. D 383 .

Haase, Hermann 303 Hollenbeck, Edward H 764

Hache, L 443 Hollenbeck, Francis A 354 Lacy, Theo 1183

Hadacheck, J. C 1201 Hollenbeck, John E 1280 La Grange, Gen. O. H 253

Hadley, Washington 1223 HoIHster, Edgar A 480 Lallich, Peter 982

Hagadorn, J. Lee, M. D 394 Hollister, Col. W. W 402 Lancaster, E. F 823

Hahn. Benjamin W 1222 Holmes, J. H 972 Lane, John 531

Hall, Duane F 966 Holmes, Thomas 757 Langenberger, August 1071

Hall, Julius F 302 Hooker, Henry C 1234 Lataillade, C. E 525

Halladay, Daniel 565 Horton, Alonzo E 335 Lawton, John Percy 379

Halsted, S. Hazard 672 Horton, James M 680 Layne. W. H 526

Hamilton, Horace G 298 Hosmer, N. H 834 Lee, Bradner W 553

Hamilton, William 686 Hostetter, Moses 582 Legrand, Louis J 641

Hammond, Mrs. N. E., M. D. 947 Houghton. S. 0 548 Lehmann. Leon 1106

Hammons. John W 691 Howard, Joseph 1200 Lewis, Clayton 324

Hancock, D. R., M. D 925 Howard. Perry A 318 Lewis, Henry 295

Hanlcy, James 1215 Howes, Felix C 557 Lewis, James C 524

Hannon, J. Vincent 950 Howland, Capt. C. H 1124 Lewis, W. H., M. D 400

Hannum, Luther C 953 Hughes, George W 684 Linck, F. X 1251

Hansen, C. M 303 Hughes. James B 968 Lindenfeld, Frank 257

Hansen, Col. L. P 239 Hugus. John W 479 Lindenfeld, Nicholas, M. D... 551

Hansen, W. G 1118 Hunter, John j\r 679 Lindholm, E. E 975

Hardacre, Mrs. Emma C 581 Hutton, A. W 1278 Lindley, Walter, M. D 1272

Hardy, Capt. Isaac B 692 Hyer, Mrs. Elizabeth 1222 Linquest, A. L 514

Harnett, Ernest T 967 -, Linville, J. T 920

Harris, David 1155 -^ Lisk, Byron 725

Harris, Capt. Emil 1090 Imler, David H 599 Lloyd, Thomas 258

Harris, Rev. John H 752 Ingersoll. C. K 756 Longacre, J. E 883

Harris. Will A 1276 Ingvaldsen, Thorvald 683 Longawa, John 524

Hart, Reuben 690 Irwin, John 689 Loughery, W. B 1164

Hartman, Fridolin 1144 Isbell, James F 323 Love, J. H., M. D 1102

Hartman, Simon 686 Ivins, Hon. C. H 349 Lowe, Thaddeus S. C 1271

Hartwell. Calvin 1082 j Loynes, Richard 972

Harwood, Thomas io6g ■' Lucas, W. T., M. D 457

Hasse, Col. H. E.. M. D 384 Jackson. William 0 758 Luce, Hon. M. A 483

Hassinger, J. H 1156 Jacobi. Louis 318 Lukens, Hon. T. P 678

Hasson, D. W., M. D 1199 Janes, J. Ely, M. D 1293 Lutz, William F 1190

Haugherty, Charles S 315 Jaques, Charles M 768 Lvon, Robert B 1144

Ilaupt, Paul 312 Jardine. John E 1162 ,,

Hawe, Rev. Patrick 399 Jeffries, Rev. .'\. C 1284 ^^

Hayden, B. T 321 Jeffries, James J 1253 Mc.-Meer, Owen 864

Hayes, John 304 Jenness. A. L 246 Mc.\rthur. John 1237

Hayes, Rev. M. C 289 Jennings. George F 1285 McCay, Charles B 1151

Hayes. Orrin H 1083 Jensen, Ernest 322 .AlcCoy, A. D. S., M. D 976

Hayne, Col. W. A 911 Jensen. Henry C 1202 McCutchcon. Joseph E 8to

Hazard, Willet B 824 John, J. S 975 McDivitt. Frank P 1097

Hazeltine, Herbert S 1190 Johnson, Capt. A. H 803 McDonald, Duncan 419

INDEX.

Page.
266

!!:S^:;»S„^ ":::::;:: ;:S SSr^u:'.;;:::;::;:;:: ^1 IXJ^cJ?;;?^;::;::::;:;;:; ,S

McFadden. Archie
:McF':idden. J

McFadden, Robert do- -• -■■ •■■■■•

McFadden. William M 685 Noycs, Hon. J. b. .

637 North. JudRc J. W 1192

Notthoff. H 1267

1 163
R

John

McKce, James R 5o6 Nn

McKevett. Charles H 5I3

McLaiii; George P 40S

McNeil, Archibald 84S ^, ^„„„^-„. ^

McPherson, Robert •■•-•••• «oo Oldendorf. J. M
Mackinlay. Robert. M. D.... 222 - - ■>

Macomber. A. K 291

Maddock. J. A 976

Magee. Mrs. Jean K. . 8/7

Malcolm. Mrs. Emma L 123/

902

673

I "scph 584 Radebaugh, J. M.. M. D 216

C Rademacher, Frank 601

Raibley, M. W 1286

O'Donnell. John 9I3 Ramsanr. William P 887

J M lOio Ramsev. William M 1094

oirveT t" 918 Randall. W. T.. A. M 233

Oliver! William J 872 Rankin. Hon. J. H 420

Olnev. I-".. W 1153 Rapp. John B 773

Ord.Robcrt B 253 Rasey. C. W S88

Orella, .\ntonio J 1164 Reber. Capt. S. F 271

Orena. Don Caspar 452 Rebman, John 913

Orr Hon. Orestes 215 Reed, John Henry II95

Orton. Robert S84 Reeve. Mrs. Jennie A 1287

Osborn. William M 1239 Reilly. Edward F ^^ 590

O'Sullivan, John 761 Reynolds, BelleL., M. D 606

Ozmun, Aaron M 1205 Reynold

Mallgren. John N
Manning. C. D...

March. D. W »"

Marchant, Samuel A »04

Markham, Hon. H. H...^...- 1289

Marsh, M. Ella W.. M. D.... 260

Martin, Capt. D. W i059

Martin, W. W n" f

Mason, Charles C ^ ^ ,,■ t ,

Mathis T A °°° Paddison. John ...

Mattison.F. C. E.. M. D 61I Page. B. M.. M. D

Maulhardt. Albert F 503 Paine. Frederick H 937

Alav Tohn A 923 Painter. Milton D 1272

,^L' •' T?" i 86=; P.lmer Noah II93

264

Dr. P. R....
Rice. Hon. Thomas A.

Richards, Jarrett T

Richards. W. D. F

Richardson, C. M

Meigs,

Fred

Mendenhall, J. F

Mermilliod, J. A 865 Palomares, Porfi:

Merwin, Rev. A. M

Meserve, A. F

Metcalf. W. B

Miller, C. F., M. D

Miller, Isaac

Miller, J. C. F

Richardson. Henry C 513

Rives. James C 348

o£ „ , ,, , , ,„, Rizor, E. A 344

865 Palmer, Noali. ...^ ii93 Roberts. John II54

..993

.. 994

.. 1 199

Peveril 379 Palomares. Frank J. 1238 Roberts. L. S.

520 Palomares, Jose D

Park. James M ^017

9»i Parks. Heber C "86

492 Parks. I. W 81S

905 Parks. William S 893

559 Parsons. John D. 1182 ^^^ r j

".G-- S^2 Roeder, Louii

^„ Roberts, Capt. W. C...
^1° Roberts, William L....

Robertson. R. F

Robinson. Richard O...

Robinson. W. D

Roblee, W. W., M. D.

554 Palerson. Johr

Miller' Joseph M 1017 Patterson, Charles E ^^^

Slills. 'Alexander F 234 Patterson, Wilson C io,35 Rommel. William

Roeder,

Rogers. William M.

60;

Peabody. Henry A.
421 Pearson, Charles H..
986 Pearson, George M..
196 Peck, George H., Jr.

925 Peck. George H., Sr 90T

590
iotS

228

817
276
594

1 194
953
536
817

1249

Mills, Col. John H

Mitchell, Henry M

Mitchell, Newel H

Montgomery, Harrison L

Moore. B. A

Moore' Capt. William 347 Peck. W. H

More. John F 225 Peed. John T

Morgan, J. E 81 1 Pemberton. L. B .

Morgan, William 75? Penney. W illiam A.

Morrill, Frank E 553 Perce. I.. A.. M. D

Morrison. J. W 806 Perrin. Leonard .. .

Morse Bradford "91 Pcrrv. Belmont . . .

Morse, Oscar 552 Perry. William H. .

Morton, Albert 8»i Pgtit. Justin "^?

Mosbaugh. George J 1 188 Pettibone. William H "93 S

Mott, Stephen H 1006 Pettis. Beniamin F 625 ,,

Mott Hon. T. D 1272 PMns. Hiram 872 Safifell Z^ C "60

Mull, Frederick 1250 Phillips. A. T i253 Sale, F. M . . . . . .^ 23.3

Miluer, H. R 624 Phillips, T.ouis 1239 Sahsburv, Mitchell H 673

S 907 Pico, Don Pio "87 Salter, J. . . . . OgQ

^ Pierce. Anthonv R 769 Sams, Eaton T, 987

N Pierce, Prof. E. T 435 Sanborn, Arthur N 021

Remi 1203 Pierce, W. H 600 Sanderson, J. L

Myers, W.

Rose, Leonard J. Jr.. .

Rose, Martin W

Rothrock, A. B

Rowland, John

Roval, A. B., M. D....

Ro'ver, T. J

Rugglcs, H. C 85t

Rundell, Eli 291

Rush, Abner 6i8

Rust, J. C 272

Rutherford, George, Sr 1075

Rutherford. Stephen 257

Rvan, Henrv N 529

Nade

Z. W.. M. D.

M. D.

323 Pinney. R. H 403 Saunders,

871 Pitzer. S. C "67 Save, Tuan

749 Plant. Marcus S 816 .^awtclle. \\ . E.

965 Piatt, George E QOi Sawver W B

1252 Pollard. Tliomas 760 Saxby. J. Bert, U. U. b.

635 Pope, Hon. J. D 1206 .Schee Brothers

982 Pone. W. F 920 Schcerer. Conrad

1254 Scheerer, lohn

Neighbours, Allen W

Neisser, Edward

Nelson, H, A

Nelson, John

Newby. Henry ••

Newcomb. A. T.. M. D

Newton. W. ^"tanton .'.'. 668 Porter. Xndrew 0 1254 Scheerer, 1 ohn , 1273

Ney M ss Marie A 793 Porter. Don C I2S4 Schiappa Pie ra, Cav. L. ..... . 367

Nichols. B. S 931 Pouer. Milo M TO06 Schilling. W lUiam .

Nicolaus, Henry 7^2 Power. George C 12.2 Schmidt. Theodore E.

Nidever, John M .583 Pow, rs TTon P, W ,3.38 Schro.

Niemann, Ferdinand 3io Prell. John G.

Niemeyer, A 866 Protcr, J.iscph

Adelmo "68

Schrocder, Hugo "69

S60 Schwartz, John F 1255

INDEX.

Page. Page. p^^g^

Scott, Henry A 889 Stantun, E. J 1172 Turner, L. C 824

Scott, John 770 Starkweather, G. A 1260 Tvler, Eckford D " 77^

Scott, William H. H 966 State Normal School 431 " ,, ''"

Seabert, Frank A 1126 Steade, J. U., M. D 390 U

Seaman, W. W 1034 Stearns, George L 797 University of Southern Cali-

Sebastian, J. L 1213 Stebbins, Charles L 924 fornia 2^'

Sebelius, C 924 Steckel, George 1231 Ussher, Paul E 0,2

Selph. Edgar E 290 Stengel, Louis J 1173 Utterback, Mrs. M J "' 876

Sepulveda, A. W 1207 Stepan, M 1174

Sessions, C. H 383 Stephens, Roy B 285 V

Severance, Mrs. CM 309 Stephenson, G. F 1023 Vail. Hugh D 226

Severance, T. C 309 Stevens, G. A 1282 Vail, W. B '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 1024

Se.xton, Joseph 263 Stevens, Frank D 1153 Van Dompselaar, S. W 1176

Shafer, Smith J 818 Stevens, James H 905 Vejar, Abraham H. . 092

Shaffer, E. E 276 Stevens, Lewis W 1246 Venable, P. S 029

Shaw, Capt. George N 1219 Stevens, Wesley L 1152 Vernon, Charles J c->(,

Shaw. James B., M. D 631 Stevenson, Henry H 899 Vesper, A. E ['/.['. 827

Shaw, James E 480 Steward, Leland B 1196 Virden, Benjamin S. . . ' 649

Shaw, S. L 631 Stewart, John M 785 Vivian, Robert P 1178

Sheldon, Gen. L. A 244 Stewart, Nathaniel 400 Von Der Lohe D H P 120-?

Shelton, Rice B 767 Stewart, Walter 0 638 Von Der Lohe, J. H. C. .'.'!".! '. 9S5

Shepherd, William E 1130 Stickney, Mrs. Jeannie E 775 Vredenburgh, Levi 936

Sherman, Charles E 498 Stimson, Thomas D 231

Sherriff, W. J 626 Stine, Jesse S 1160 W

Sherwood, Frederick W 1275 Stockton, T. C, M. D 296 Wagner, Edward M. . 644

Shibley, William 822 Storke, Hon. C. A 500 Waite, George W " ' 1204

Shiels, John 322 Story, Thomas 1125 Waite, L. C 1189

Shipley, G. W 1259 Stoutenburgh, J. B 286 Wakeham, Hubert H ii8i

Shorb, J. De Barth 1197 Strahan, D. W 1015 Waldie, Alexander 483

Simmons, A. B., M. D 888 Stratton, Samuel 1135 Walker, Hon. C. J " 1214

Simms, J. A iigo Streeter, Hon. H. M 709 Walker, Frank 602

Simpson, Thomas F 895 Streets, J. J 643 Walker, S. M 1119

Skidraore, S. S 1024 Strohm, Capt. Thomas 1057 Wallischeck, Rev. Peter 514

Skillen, Charles M 731 Stromee, Gustaf 607 Ward, James F !i004

Slanker. Frank 0 912 Strong, Robert 1132 Warring, Benjamin F 641

Sloan. James E 1022 Stuntz, Rev. J. H 629 Warrmg, Hugh 638

Slosson. C. E 821 Sudden, Robert C 1081 Waterman, W. i\L . . 1089

Smith, C. B 1160 Sudden, W. H 1083 Waters. George H 536

Smith, Charles W 779 Suess, John 917 Waters, Hon. R. J. 1294

Smith, Hon. Fred M 1295 Sullivan, David 776 Waters, Capt. William G. . 649

Smith, George A 1170 Sullivan, P. T 1175 Waters, W. Lacy 650

Smith, Ira 0 494 Sumner, Rev. C. B 1261 Way, E. Henry, M. D 1180

Smith, Joseph 890 Swensen, A 1093 Weales, Thomas 650

Smith. Rufus D., Jr 1023 q, Weber, ]\Ioritz 1269

Smith, Rufus D., Sr 1022 Weber, William P 1089

Smith, Samuel L 632 Taggart, J. W 301 Webster, L.F 611

Smith, Sanford S 979 Talbott, Hon. W. L 1092 Weldon, Rev. S. R 653

Smith, Solon 632 Tallant, E. C 504 Weldon. W. A., M. D 328

Smith, Judge Welcome 1031 Taylor, G. B 539 Wells, Hon. G. W 1275

Smith, Willis H 774 Taylor, Mrs. Nannie A. D. .. . 539 Wentworth, Col. M. C. . . . 1280

Smith, W. R 636 Taylor, Peter, Sr 1175 Werner, Marie B., M. D 877

Snodgrass, Larkin 1205 Teague, Crawfprd P 531 Weston, B. S 1214

Snow, Hiram K., Jr 998 Teague, Robert M 1199 Westover, Prof. O. S 519

Snow, Hiram K., Sr 1195 Tenhaeff, William 722 Wetzel, Martin . 1177

Snyder, F. A 1092 Thayer, George R 883 Weyse. Hon. H. G 406

Snyder. George D 988 Thomas, Benjamin F 1123 Weyse, Julius G 406

Snyder, Hon. M. P 608 Thomas, Milton 425 Wheelan, Miss Naomi 654

Snyder. William P 1171 Thompson, W. A 617 Whipp, Benjamin F 1000

Soto. Juan S 914 Thornburgh, Madison 642 Whitaker. James A I198

Southmayd, N. S 1032 Thornton, William E 1269 White, Albert S 1185

Spader, Louis 636 Thrall, Timothy L 938 White. Caleb E 552

Spaulding, Frank L 1039 Thurman. Reason M 908 White, Miss Edith 1248

Spaulding, Q. L 1172 Tibbals, Barnabas 876 White, James H 1118

Spence, J. P 1282 Tietzen. Paul 0 401 White, John A 857

Spencer, B. F 587 Titus. Luther H 781 White, Hon. S. M 214

Spencer, Thomas, M. D 1185 Todd, M. De L 1117 White, Theodore F 1213

Sprague, B. 0 1244 Todd, Robert A 647 White, Ulvsses E 936

Spring, Wilham F 563 Toland, M. R.. M. D 930 Whiting Perry 999

Sproul, Atwood 896 Toland, Thomas 0 505 Whitted. Dr. Charles 1181

Sproul, Gilbert H 29S Toms, Silas 822 Wickenden. W. F 575

Sproul, William 830 Towle, Charles H 875 Wilev, William H 1034

Spurgeon, Granville 805 Townsend. Stephen 1131 Wilkinson, Qark G 786

Spurgeon, William H 661 Trask, Hon. D. K 552 Wilkinson, John B 1000

St. Anthony's College 517 Traster. William H 1094 Willett, Hon. C. J 1087

Staats, William R 998 Trotter, J. P 809 Williams, Albert C 1264

Stambach, H. L., M. D 637 Truax, R. C 1124 Williams, Hon. B. T 655

Stanley, C. N 1026 Turner, Elbert B 1091 Williams, George M 659

INDEX.

lliams, Mrs. Julia F

Williams. John H

lliams, J. McCoy

lliams, O. D

Uoughby. James R

llson

John A

Ison.

A. C.J

Wilson,

Allen J

Ison,

Jerome C

V\'

Ison

P.J

Ison,

R. H

Page. Page. Page.

510 Wing, William A 1178 Woodbury, George B 788

396 Wiswell, Royal 659 Woods, Alvin M

439 Witherspoon, Isaac A 733 Woodward, S. K

1249 Wolfskin. William 1273 Woodworth, J. H

269 Wood. Harry 660 Woolley, L, J

1188 Wood, Henry P 343 Workman, William H 1021

387 Wood, John W 876 Works, Hon. J. D 1206

895 Wood, Joshua 787 Worthley, F. A 882

1151 Wood, J. W., M. D 1003 ^

656 Wood. Thomas D 661 ^

786 Wood. Rev. W. 0 1270 York, Hon. W. M 1271

1 179
926

926

HISTORICAL.

(insTclKIAN.)

, yUA/l^i^^^

CHAPTER 1.

SPANISH DISCOVERIES ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF NORTH AMERICA.

THE unparalleled success of our aniiy and
navy in our recent war with Spain has
bred in us a contempt for -the Spanish
soldier and sailor; and, in. our overm'astering-
Anglo-Saxon conceit, we are inclined to con-
sider our race the conservator of enterprise, ad-
venture and martial valor; while on the other
hand we regard the Spanish Celt a prototype
of indolence, and as lacking in energy and cour-
age.

And yet there was a time when these race con-
ditions were seemingly reversed. There was a
time when Spain, to-day moribund, dying of
political conservatism, ignorance and bigotry,

.was the most energetic, the most enterprising
and the most adventurous nation of Europe.

A hundred years before our Pilgrim Fathers
landed on Plymouth Rock. Spain had flourish-
ing colonies in America. Eighty-five years be-
fore the first cabin was built in Jamestown,
Cortes had conquered and made tributary to the
Spanish crown the empire of Mexico — a country
marc populous and many times larger than
Spain herself. Ninety years before the Dutch

. had planted the germ of a settlement on Man-
hattan Island — the site of the future metropolis
of the new world — Pizarro, the swineherd of
Truxillo, with a handful of adventurers, had con-
(|nered Peru, the richest, most populous and
most civilized empire of America.

In less than fifty years after the discovery of
.\mcrica by Columbus, Balboa had discovered
the Pacific Ocean; Magellan, sailing through
the straits that still bear his name and crossing
the wide Pacific, had discovered the Islands of
tlie Setting Sun (now the Philippines) and his
ship had circunmavigated the globe; Alvar Nu-
nez (better known as Cabeza de \^aca), with
tiiree coiupanions, the only survivors of three
hundred men Narvaez landed in Florida, after
years of wandering among the Indians, had
crossed the continent overland from the Atlantic
to the Pacific: Coronado had penetrated the in-
terior of the North American continent to the
plains of Kansas ; Alarcon had reached the head
of the Gulf of California and sailed up the Rio
Colorado; and Cabrillo, the discoverer of .\lt.i
California, had explored the Pacific ('(last ni

America to the 44th parallel of North Latitude.

\\'hile the English were cautiously feeling
their tvay along the North Atlantic Coast of.
America and taking possession of a few bays and
harbors, the Spaniards had possessed themselves
of- nearly all of the South American continent
and more than one-third of the North American.
When we consider the imperfect arms with
which the Spaniards made their conquests, and
the lumbering and unseaworthy craft in which
they explored unknown and uncharted seas, we
are surprised at their success and astonished at
their enterprise and daring.

The ships of Cabrillo were but little better
than floating tubs, square rigged, high decked,
broad bottomed — they sailed almost equally well
with broadside as, with keel to the wave. Even
the boasted galleons of Spain were but little bet-
ter than caricatures of maritime architecture —
huge, clumsy, round-stemmed vessels, with sides
from the water's edge upward sloping inward,
and built up at stem and stern like castles —
they rocked and rolled their way across the
ocean. Nor were storms and shipwreck on un-
known seas the mariner's greatest dread nor -his
deadliest enemies. That fearful scourge of the
high seas, the dreaded escorbuto, or scurvy, al-
ways made its appearance on long voyages and
sometimes exterminated the entire ship's crew.
Sebastian Viscaino, in 1602, with three ships and
two hundred men, sailed out of Acapulco to ex-
plore the Coast of California. At the end of a
voyage of eleven months the San Tomas re-
turned with nine men alive. Of the crew of the
Tres Reys (Three Kings) only five returned ; and
his flag' ship, the San Diego, lost more than
half her men.

A hundred and sixty-seven years later Galvez
fitted out an expedition for the colonization of
California. He despatched the San .Antonio and
the San Carlos as a complement of the land ex-
peditions under Portola and Scrra. The San
.\ntonio, after a prosperous voyage of fifty-
seven davs from Cape San Lucas, anchored in
San Diego harbor. The San Carlos, after a
tedious voyage of one hundred and ten days
froiu La Paz. drifted into San Diego Bay, her
crew prostrated with scurvy, not enough able-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

bodied men to man a boat to reach the shore.
When the plague had run its course, of the crew
of the San Carlos one sailor and a cook were all _
that were alive. The San Jose, despatched sev- "
eral months later from San Jose del Cabo with
mission supplies and a double crew to supply
the loss of men on the other vessels, was never
heard of after the day of her sailing. Her fate
was doubtless that of many a gallant ship before
her time. Her crew, prostrated by the scurvy,
none able to man the ship, not one able to wait
upon another, dying, dying, day by day until all
are dead — then the vessel, a floating charnel
house, tossed by the winds and. buffeted by the
waves, sinks at last into the ocean's depths and
her ghastly tale of horrors forever remains un-
told.

It is to the energy and adventurous spirit of
Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, that
we owe the discovery of California at so early a
period in the age of discoveries. Scarcely had
he completed the conquest of Mexico before he
began preparations for new conquests. The vast
unknown regions to the north and northwest
of Mexico proper held within them possibilities
of illimitable wealth and spoils. To the explora-
tion and conquest of these he bent his energies.

In 1522, but three years after his landing in
Alexico, he had established a shipyard at Zaca-
tula, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, and began
building an exploring fleet. But from the very
beginning of his enterprise "unmerciful disaster
followed him fast and followed him faster." His
warehouse at Zacatula, filled with ship-building
material, carried at great expense overland from
\'era Cruz, was burned. Shipwreck and mutiny
at sea ; disasters and defeat of his forces on land ;
treachery of his subordinates and jealousy of
royal officials thwarted his plans and wasted his
substance. After expending nearly a million
dollars in explorations and attempts at coloniza-
tion, disappointed, impoverished, fretted and
worried by the ingratitude of a monarch for
whom he had sacrificed so much, he died in 1547,
at a little village near Seville, in Spain.

It was through a mutiny on one of Cortes'
ships that the peninsula of California was dis-
covered. In 1533, Cortes had fitted out two new
ships for exploration and discoveries. On one
of these, commanded by Becerra de Mendoza, a
mutiny broke out headed by Fortune Ximenez,
the chief pilot. Mendoza was killed and his
friends forced to go ashore on the coast of
Jalisco, where they were abandoned. Ximenez
and his mutinous crew sailed directly away from
the coast and after being at sea for a number of
days discovered what they supposed to be an
island. They landed at a place now known as
La Paz, in Lower California. Here Ximenez

and twenty of his companions were reported to
have been killed by the Indians. The remainder
of the crew navigated the ship back to Jalisco,
where they reported the discovery. In 1535
Cortes landed at the same port where Ximenez
had been killed. Here he attempted to plant a
colony, but the colony scheme was a failure and
the colonists returned to Mexico.

The last voyage of exploration made under
the auspices of Cortes was that of Francisco de
U;ioa in 1539-40. He sailed up the Gulf of Cali-
fornia to its head, skirting the coast of the main
land, then turning he sailed down the eastern
shore of the peninsula, doubled Cape San
Lucas and sailed up the Pacific Coast of Lower
California to Cedros Island, where, on account
of head winds, and his provisions being nearly "
exhausted, he was forced to return. His voyage
proved that what hitherto had been considered
an island was a peninsula. The name California
had been applied to the peninsula when it was
supposed to be an island, some time betiveen
1535 ^nd 1539. The name was undoubtedly
taken from an old Spanish romance, "The
Sergas de Esplandian," written by Ordonez de
Montalvo, and published in Seville about 15 10.
This novel was quite popular in the times of
Cortes and ran through several editions. This
romance describes an island "on the right hand
of the Indies, very near the Terrestrial Paradise,
which was peopled with black women without
any men among them, because they were accus-
tomed to live after the fashion of Amazons."
The supposition that the Indies lay at no great
distance to the left of the supposed island no
doubt suggested the fitness of the name, but
who first applied it is uncertain.

.So far the explorations of the North Pacific
had not extended to what in later years was
known as Alta California. It is true .-Marcon,
the discoverer of the Colorado River in 1540,
may possibly have set foot on Californian soil,
and Melchoir Diaz later in the same year may
have done so when he led an expedition to the
mouth of the Colorado, or Buena Guia, as it was
then called, but there were no interior boundary
lines, and the whole country around the Colo-
rado was called Pimeria. .\Iarcon had returned
from his voyage up the Gulf of California with-
out accomplishing any of the objects for which
he had been sent by \'iceroy Mendoza. Coro-
nado was still absent in search of Ouivera and
the fabulous seven cities of Cibola. Mendoza
was anxious to prosecute the search for Quivera
still further. Pedro de Alvarado had arrived at
Navidad from Guatemala with a fleet of 12 ships
and a license from the crown for the discovery
and conciuest of islands in the South Seas. Men-
doza. I)v sharp practice, IkuI obtained a iialf in-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

terest in the projected discoveries. It was pro-
posed before beginning the voyage to the South
Seas to employ Alvarado's fleet and men in
exploring the Gulf of California and the country
to the north of it, but before the expedition was
ready to sail an insurrection broke out among
the natives of Nueva Galacia and Jalisco. Al-
varado was sent with a large part of his force to
suppress it. In an attack upon a fortified strong-
hold he was killed by the insurgents. In the
meantime Coronado's return dispelled the myths
of Ouivera and the seven cities of Cibola ; dis-
approved Padre Niza's stories of their fabulous
wealth and dissipated Mendoza's hopes of find-

ing a second Mexico or Peru in the desolate
regions of Pimeria. The death of Alvarado had
left the fleet at Navidad without a commander,
and Mendoza having obtained full possession of
the fleet it became necessary for him to find
something for it to do. Five of the ships were
despatched under command of Ruy Lopez de
Yillalobos to the Islas de Poniente or the Islands
of the Setting Sun (on this voyage Villalobos
changed the name of these islands to the Philip-
pines) to establish trade with the islanders, and
two of the ships under Cabrillo were sent to ex-
plore the northwest coast of the mainland of
North America. ^

CHAPTER II.

THE DISCOVERY OF NUEVA OR ALTA CALIFORNIA.

JUAN RODRIGUEZ CABRILLO (gener-
ally reputed to be a Portuguese by birth,
but of this there is no positive evidence)
sailed from Navidad, June 27, 1542, with two
ships, the San Salvador and Vitoria. On the
20th of August he reached Cabo del Engaiio,
the Cape of Deceit, the highest pomt reached by
Ulloa. From there he sailed on unknown seas.
On the 28th of September he discovered "a land
locked and very good harbor," which he named
San Miguel, now supposed to be San Diego.
Leaving there October 3, he sailed along the
coast eighteen leagues to the islands some seven
leagues from the mainland. These he named
after his ships, San Salvador and Vitoria, now
Santa Catahna and San Clemente. On the 8th
of October he crossed the channel between the
islands and the mainland and sailed into a port
which he named Bahia de Los Fumos, the Bay
of Smokes. The bay and the headlands were
shrouded in a dense cloud of smoke, hence the
name.

The Bahia de Los Fumos, or Fuegos, is now
known as the Bay of San Pedro. Sixty-seven
years before Hendrick Hudson entered the Bay
of New York, Cabrillo had dropped anchor in
the Bay of San Pedro, the future port of Los
Angeles. After sailing six leagues farther, on
October 9, Cabrillo anchored in a large ensenada
or bight, Vi'hich is supposed to be what is now
the Bay of Santa Monica. It is uncertain whether
he landed at either place. The next day he sailed
eight leagues to an Indian town, which he named
the Pueblo de Las Canoas (the town of canoes),
this was probably located near the present site
of San Buenaventura. Continuing his voyage
up the coast he passed through the Santa Bar-
bara Channel, discovering the Islands of Santa

Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel. He discov
ered and entered Monterey Bay and reached the
latitude of San Francisco Bay, when he was
forced by severe storms to return to the island
now known as San Miguel, in the Santa Barbara
Channel. There he died, January 3, 1543, from
the effects of a fall, and was buried on the island.

The discoverer of California sleeps in an un-
known grave in the land he discovered. No
monument commemorates his virtues or his
deeds. His fellow voyagers named the island
where he was buried Juan Rodriguez after their
brave commander, but subsequent navigators
robbed him of even this slight honor. Barto-
lome Ferrelo, his chief pilot, continued the ex-
ploration of the coast and on March i, 1543.
discovered Cape Blanco, in tlie southern part of
what is now Oregon. His provisions being
nearly exhausted he was compelled to turn back.
He ran down the coast, his ships having become
separated in a storm at San Clemente Island,
they came together again at Cerros Island and
both safely reached Navidad, April 18, 1543,
after an absence of nearly a year. Cabrillo's
voyage was the last one undertaken as a private
enterprise by the Viceroys of New Spain. The
law giving licenses to subjects to make explora-
tions and discoveries was changed. Subsequent
explorations were made under the auspices of
the kings of Spain.

For nearly seventy years the Spaniards had
held undisputed sway on the Pacific Coast of
America. Their isolation had protected the
cities and towns of the coast from the plunder-
ing raids of the buccaneers and other sea rovers.
Immunity from danger had permitted the build-
ing up of a flourishing trade along the coast and
weaUh had flowed into the Spanish cofTers. But

JlISToKiCAL AND JlKx^RAriilCAL RECORD.

llu'ir dream of security was to be rudely broken.

Francis Drake, the bravest and most daring of
the sea kings of the i6th century, had early won
wealth and fame by his successful raids in the
Spanish West Indies. When he proposed to fit
out an expedition against the Spanish settle-
ments on the Pacific, although England and
Spain was at peace with each other, he found
plenty of wealthy patrons to aid him, even Queen
Elizabeth herself taking a share in his venture.
He sailed from Plymouth, England, December
13, 1577, with five small vessels. When he
reached the Pacific Ocean by way of the Straits
of Magellan he had but one "the Golden Hind"
a ship of one hundred tons. All the others
had turned back or been left behind. Sailing up
the Coast of South America he spread terror
among the Spanish settlements, robbing towns
and capturing ships, until, in the quaint language
of a chronicler of the expedition, he "had loaded
his vessel with a fabulous amount of fine wares
from Asia, precious stones, church ornaments,
gold plate and so mooch silver as did ballas the
Goulden Hinde." With treasure amounting to
"eight hundred, sixty sixe thousand pezos (dol-
lars) of silver * * * a hundred thousand
pezos of gold * * * and other things of great
worth he thought it not good to returne by the
(Magellan) streights * * * least the Span-
iards should there waite, and attend for him in
great numbers and strength whose hands, he
being left but one ship, he could not possibly
escape."

By the first week in March, 1579, he had
reached the entrance to the Bay of Panama.
Surfeited with spoils and loaded with plunder it
became necessary for him to find as speedy a
passage homeward as possible. To return by
the way he had come was to invite certain de-
struction. So he resolved to seek for the fabled
Straits of Anian, which were believed to con-
nect the Atlantic and Pacific. Striking boldly
out on the trackless ocean he sailed more than a
thousand leagues northward. Encountering
contrary winds and cold weather, he gave up his
search for the straits and turning he ran down
the coast to latitude 38°, where "hee found a har-
borow for his ship." He anchored in it Jnne 17,
1579. lliis harbor is now known as Drake's
Ray and is situated about half a degree north of
.San Francisco under Point Reyes.

Fletcher, the chronicler of Drake's voyage, in
his narrative "The \\orld Encompassed," says:
"The 3d day following, viz. the 21st, our ship
having received a leake at sea was brought to
anchor neercr th.c shoare that her goods being
landed she might be repaired ; but for that we
were to prevent any danger that might chance
against our safety our Gcnerall first of rill landed

his men with all necessary provision to build
tents and make a fort for the defense of ourselves
and goods ; and that we might under the shelter
of it with more safety (whatever should befall)
end our businesse."

The ship was drawn upon the beach, careened
on its side, caulked and refitted. While the crew
were repairing the ship the natives visited them
in great numbers. From some of their actions
Drake inferred that the natives regarded himself
and his men as gods ; to disabuse their minds of
such a false impression he had his chaplain,
Francis Fletcher, perform divine service accord-
ing to the English Episcopal ritual. After the
service they sang psalms. The Indians en-
joyed the singing, but their opinion of Fletcher's
sermon is not known. From certain ceremonial
performances of the Indians, Drake imagined
that they w-ere offering him the sovereignty of
their country; he accepted the gift and took
formal possession of it in the name of Queen
Elizabeth. He named it New Albion "for two
causes; the one in respect of the white bankes
and clifTes which ly towardes the sea ; and the
other because it might have some aflfinitie with
our own countrey in name which sometimes was
so called." *

After the necessary repairs to the ship were
made, "our Generall, with his company, made a
journey up into the land." "The inland we found
to be farre different from the shoare, a goodly
country and fruitful soyle, stored with many
blessings fit for the use of man ; infinite was the
company of very large and fat deere which
there we saw by thousands as we supposed in a
heard." * They saw also great numbers of
small burrowing animals which they called
conies, but which were probably ground squir-
rels, although the narrator describes the animal's
tail as "Hke the tayle of a rat eceeding long." Be-
fore departing, Drake caused to be set up a mon-
ument to show- that he had taken possession of
the country. His monument was a post sunk in
the ground to which was nailed a brass plate en-
graven with the name of the English Queen, the
day and year of his arrival and that the king
and people of the country had voluntarily be-
come vassals of the English crown. .\ new six-
pence was also nailed to the post to show her
highness' picture and arms. ( )n the 23rd of
July, 1579, Drake sailed away, much to the
regret of the Indians, who "took a sorrowful
farewell of us but being loathe to leave us they
presently runne to the top of the hils to keepe
us in sight as long as they cou'd, making fires
before and behind and on each side of them
burning therein sacrifices at our departure."*

* World Encompassed.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

J [c crusscd the Pacific Ocean and by way
of the Cape of Good Hope reached England,
September 26, 1580, after an absence of nearly
three years, having encompassed the world. He
believed himself to be the first discoverer of
the country he called New Albion. "The Span-
iards," says Drake's chaplain, Fletcher, in his
World Encompassed, "never had any dealings
or so much as set a foote in this country, the
utmost of their discoveries reaching only to
many degrees southward of this place." The
English had not yet begun planting colonies in
the new world, so no further attention was paid
to Drake's discovery of New Albion, and Cali-
fornia remained a Spanish possession.

Sixty years have passed since Cabrillo's visit
to California, and in all these years Spain has
made no efifort to colonize it. Only the In-
dian canoe has cleft the waters of its southern
lia)-s and harbors. Far out to the westward be-
yond the islands the yearly galleon from Ma-
nila, freighted with the treasures of "Ormus and
of Ind," sailed down the coast of California to
Acapulco. These ships kept well out from the
southern coast to escape those wolves of the
high seas — the buccaneers ; for, lurking near the
coast of Las Californias, these ocean robbers
watched for the white sails of the galleon, and
woe to the proud ship if they sighted her. She
was chased down by the robber pack and plun-
dered of her treasures. Sixty years have passed
but the Indians of the Coast still keep alive the
tradition of bearded men floating in from the
sea on the backs of monster white winged birds,
and they still watch for the return of their
strange visitors. Sixty years pass and again the
Indian watchers by the sea discern mysterious
white winged objects floating in upon the waters
of the bays and harbors of California. These are
the ships of Sebastian Viscaino's fleet.

Whether the faulty reckoning of Cabrillo left
\'iscaino in doubt of the points named by the
first discoverer or whether it was that he might
receive the credit of their discovery — ^Viscaino
changed the names given by Cabrillo to the
islands, bays and headlands along the coast :
San Miguel of Cabrillo became San Diego, so
named for Viscaino's flag ship ; San Salvador
and La Vitoria became Santa Catalina and San
Clemente ; and Cabrillo's Bahia de Los Fumos
appears on Viscaino's map as the Ensenada de
San Andre.s — the bight or cove of St. An-
drew ; but in a description of the voyage com-
])ilod by the cosmographer, Cabrera Bueno, it
is named San Pedro. It is not named for the
apostle St. Peter, as is generally supposed, but
for St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, whose day
in the Catholic calendar is November 26, the
(lav nf the month that Viscaino anchored in the

bay. St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, lived in
the third century after Christ. He was be-
headed by order of the African proconsul
Galerius Maxinuis, during the persecution of
the Christians under the Roman Emperor
Valerian. The day of his death was November
26, A. D. 258.

Viscaino found clouds of smoke hanging over
the headlands and bays of the coast just as
Cabrillo had sixty years before, and for cen-
turies preceding, no doubt, the same phenom-
enon might have been seen in the autumn days
of each year. The smoky condition of the at-
mosphere was caused by the Indians burning
the dry grass of the plains. The California
Indian of the coast was not like Nimrod of old,
a mighty hunter. He seldom attacked any
fiercer animal than the festive jack rabbit. Nor
were his futile weapons always sure to bring
down the fleeted-footed conejo. So, to supply
his larder, he was compelled to resort to
strategy. When the summer heat had dried the
long grass of the plains and rendered it exceed-
ingly inflammable the hunters of the Indian
villages set out on hunting expeditions. Mark-
ing out a circle on the plains where the dried
vegetation was the thickest they fired the grass
at several points in the circle. The fire eating
inward drove the rabbits and other small game
back and forth across the narrowing area until,
blinded with heat and scorched by the flames,
they perished. When the flames had subsided
the Indian secured the spoils of the chase,
slaughtered and ready cooked. The scorched
and blackened carcasses of the rabbits might not
be a tempting tidbit to an epicure, but the In-
dian was not an epicure.

Viscaino sailed up the coast, following very
nearly the same route as Cabrillo. Passing
through the Santa Barbara Channel, he found
many populous Indian ranchcrias on the main-
land and the islands. The inhabitants were ex-
pert seal hunters and fishermen, and were pos-
sessed of a number of large, finely constructed
canoes. From one of the villages on the coast
near Point Reyes the chief visited him on his
ship and among other inducements to remain in
the country he offered to give to each Spaniard
ten wives. Viscaino declined the chief's prof-
fered hospitality and the wives. A'iscaino's ex-
plorations did not extend further north than
those of Cabrillo and Drake. The principal ob-
ject of his explorations was to find a harbor of
refuge for the Manila galleons. These vessels
on their outward voyage to the Philippine
Islands kept within the tropics, but on their
return, they sailed up the Asiatic coast to the
latitude of Japan, where, taking advantage of
the westerly winds and the Japan current, they

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

crossed over to about Cape Mendocino and then
ran down the coast of California and Mexico
to Acapulco. Viscaino, in the port he named
Monterey after Conde de Monterey, the then
Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), claimed to
have discovered the desired harbor.

In a letter to the King of Spain written by
Viscaino from the city of Mexico, May 23,
1603, he gives a glowing description of Cali-
fornia. As it is the earliest known specimen of
California boom literature I transcribe a por-
tion of it : "Among the ports of greater con-
sideration which I discovered was one in thirty-
seven degrees of latitude which I called Mon-
terey. As I wrote to Your Majesty from that
port on the 28th of December (1602) it is all
that can be desired for commodiousness and as
a station for ships making the voyage to the
Philippines, sailing whence they make a land-
fall on this coast. This port is sheltered from all
winds, while on the immediate coast there are
pines, from which masts of any desired size can
be obtained, as well as live oaks and white oaks,
rosemary, the vine, the rose of Alexandria, a
great variety of game, such as rabbits, hares,
partridges and other sorts and species found
in Spain and in greater abundance than in the
Sierra Morena (Mts. of Spain) and flying birds,
of kinds differing from those to be found there.
This land has a genial climate, its waters are
good, and it is very fertile, judging from the
varied and luxuriant growth of trees and
plants; for I saw some of the fruits, particularly
chestnuts and acorns, which are larger than
those of Spain. And it is thickly settled with
people, whom I found to be of gentle disposi-
tion, peaceable and docile, and who can be
brought readily within the fold of the holy gos-
pel and into subjection to the Crown of Your
Majesty. Their food consists of seeds, which
they have in abundance and variety, and of the
flesh of game, such as deer, which are larger
than cows, and bear, and of neat cattle and
bisons and many other animals. The Indians
are of good stature and fair complexion, the
women being somewhat less in size than the
men and of pleasing countenance. The cloth-
ing of the people of the coast lands consists
of the skins of the sea wolves (otter), abound-
ing there, which they tan and dress better than is
done in Castile ; they possess also in great quan-
tity, flax like that of Castile, hemp and cotton,
from which they make fishing lines and nets for
rabbits and hares. They have vessels of pine-
wood very well made, in which they go to sea
with fourteen paddle men of a side with great
dexterity, even in very stormy weather. I was
informed by them and by many others I met
with in great numbers along more than eight

hundred leagues of a thickly settled coast that
inland there are great communities, which they
invited me to visit with them. They manifested
great friendship for us, and a desire for inter-
course; were well affected towards the image
of Our Lady which I showed to them, and very
attentive to the sacrifice of the mass. They
worship different idols, for an account of which
I refer to said report of your viceroy, and they
arc well acquainted with silver and gold and
said that these were found in the Interior."

When Sebastian Viscaino took his pen in
hand to describe a country he allowed his imag-
ination full play. He was a veritable Munchau-
sen for exaggeration. Many of the plants and
animals he describes were not found in Califor-
nia at the time of his visit. The natives were
not clothed in well tanned sea otter skins, but
in their own sun tanned skins, with an occa-
sional smear of paint to give variety to the
dress nature had provided them. The hint
about the existence of gold in California is very
ingeniously thrown in to excite the cupidity of
the king. The object of \'iscaino's boom lit-
erature of three hundred years ago was similar
to that sent in modern times. He was agitating
a scheme for the colonization of the country he
was describing. He visited Spain to obtain per-
mission and means from the king to plant col-
onies in California. After many delays Philip
HI. ordered the Viceroy of New Spain in 1606
to immediately fit out an expedition to be com-
manded by Viscaino for the occupation and
settlement of the port of Monterey. Before the
expedition could be gotten ready Viscaino died
and the colonization scheme died with him. Had
it not been for his untimely death the settle-
ment of California would have antedated that of
Jamestown, Va.

Although Ulloa and Alarcon had reached the
head of the Gulf of California and the latter, in
1540, had discovered the Colorado river; and
despite the fact that Domingo del Castillo, a
Spanish pilot, had made a correct map showing
Lower California to be a peninsula, so strong
was the belief in the existence of the Straits of
Anian that one hundred and sixty years after
the discoveries of these explorers, "Las Cali-
fornias" were still believed to be islands; and
were sometimes called Islas Carolinas or Char-
les' Islands (named for Charles II.. of Spain).
To the German Jesuit Missionary, Father Kuhn,
better known by his Spanish appellation. Father
Kino, belongs the credit of finally dissipating the
fallacy, that California was an island or several
islands. Between 1694 and 1701 he made five
explorations to the country around the head of
the Gulf of California and the junction of the
Gila and Colorado. In 1701 he crossed the Colo-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

rado to the California side and learned from the
natives that the ocean was only ten days' jour-
ney to the westward, but unable to take his pack
animals across the river, he was compelled to

give up a journey to the sea coast. He had
planned a chain of missions to extend up the
peninsula into Alta or Nueva California, but
died before he could carry out his scheme.

CHAPTER 111.

MISSION COLONIZATION.

THE aggrandizement of Spain's empire,
whether by conquest or colonization,
was alike the work of state and church.
The sword and the cross were equally the em-
blems of the conquistador (conqueror) and the
poblador (colonist). The king sent his soldiers
to conquer and hold, the church its well-trained
servants to proselyte and colonize. Spain's pol-
icy of exclusion, which prohibited foreigners
from settling in Spanish-American countries,
retarded the growth and development of her
colonial possessions. Under a decree of Philip
II. it was death to any foreigner who should
enter the Gulf of Mexico or any of the lands
bordering thereon. It was — as the Kings of
Spain found to their cost — one thing to utter a
decree, but quite another to enforce it. Under
such a policy the only means left to Spain to hold
her vast colonial possessions was to proselyte
the natives of the countries conquered and to
transform them into citizens. This had proved
effective with the semi-civilized natives of Mex-
ico and Peru, but with the degraded Indians of
California it was a failure.

After the abandonment of Viscaino's coloniza-
tion scheme of 1606, a hundred and sixty-two
years passed before the Spanish crown made
another attempt to utilize its vast possessions in
Upper California. Every year of this long in-
terval, the Manila ships had sailed down the
coast, but none of them, so far as we know, with
one exception (the San Augustin which was
wrecked in Sir Francis Drake's Bay), had ever
entered its bays or its harbors. Spain was no
longer a first-class power on land or sea. Those
brave old sea kings — Drake, Hawkins and Fro-
bisher — had destroyed her invincible Armada
and burned her ships in her very harbors, the
English and Dutch privateers had preyed upon
her commerce on the high seas, and the bucca-
neers had robbed her treasure ships and devastat-
ed her settlements on the islands and the Span-
ish main, while the freebooters of many na-
tions had time and again captured her Manila
galleons and ravished her colonies on the Pacific
Coast. The profligacy and duplicity of her kings,
the avarice and intrigues of her nobles, the atroc-

ities and inhuman barbarities of her holy inqui-
sition had sapped the vitality of the nation and
subverted the character of her people. Although
Spain had lost prestige and her power was stead-
ily declining she still held to her colonial pos-
sessions. But these were in danger. England,
her old-time enemy, was aggressive and grasp-
ing; and Russia, a nation almost unknown
when Spain was in her prime, was threatening
her possessions on the northwest coast of the
Pacific. The scheme to provide ports of refuge
for the Manila ships on their return voyages,
which had been held in abeyance for a hundred
and sixty years, was again revived, and to it was
added the project of colonizing California to
resist Russian aggression.

The sparsely inhabited colonial dominions of
Spain can furnish but few immigrants. Califor-
nia, to be held, must be colonized. So again
church and state act in concert for the physical
and spiritual conquest of the country. The
sword will convert where the cross fails. The
natives who prove tractable are to be instructed
in the faith and kept under control of the clergy
until they are trained for citizenship ; those who
resist, the soldiers convert with the sword and
the bullet.

The missions established by the Jesuits on the
peninsula of Lower California between 1697 and
1766 had, by royal decree, been given to the
Franciscans and the Jesuits expelled frdin all
Spanish countries. To the Franciscans was en-
trusted the conversion of the gentiles of the
north. In 1768 the visitador-gcneral of New-
Spain, Jose de Galvez, began the preparation of
an expedition to colonize Upper or New Califor-
nia. The state, in this colonization scheme, was
represented liy Governor Caspar de Portola, and
the church by Father Junipero Serra. Two ex-
peditions were to be sent by land and two by sea.
On the 9th of January, 1769, the San Carlos was
despatched from La Paz, and the San Antonio
from San Lucas on the 15th of February. The
first vessel reached the port of San Diego in no
days, and the second in 57 days. Such were the
uncertainties of ocean travel before the age of
steam. On the 14th of May, the first land ex-

•10

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

]>c<litic)n rcaclK'd San l)icL,'t' and fonml tlic San
Antonio and San Carlos anchored there. On
the 1st of July the last land expedition, with
which came Governor Portola and Father Juni-
pero Serra, arrived. On the i6th of July the
mission of San Diego was founded, and thus,
two hundred and twenty-seven years after its dis-
covery, the first effort at tlie colonization of
California was made.

The ravages of the scurvy had destroyed the
crew of one of the vessels and crippled that of
the other, so it was impossible to proceed by
sea to Monterey, the chief objective point of the
expedition. A land force, composed of seventy-
five officers and soldiers and two friars, was or-
ganized under Governor Caspar de Portola and
on the 14th of July set out for Monterey Bay.
On the 2d of August, 1769, the explorers dis-
covered a river which they named the Porciun-
cula (now the Los Angeles). That night they
encamped within the present limits of the city
of Los Angeles. Their camp was named Neus-
tra Senora de Los Angeles. They proceeded
northward, following the coast, but failed to find
Monterey Bay; Viscaino's exaggerated descrip-
tion deceived them. They failed to recognize in
the open ensenada his land-locked harbor. Pass-
ing on they discovered the Bay of San Fran-
cisco. On their return, in January, they came
down the San Fernando Valley, crossed the Ar-
royo Seco, near the present site of Garvaiiza,
passed over into the San Gabriel Valley and fol-
lowed down a river they called the San ^liguel,
and crossing it at the Paso de Bartolo and
thence by their former trail, they returned to
San Diego. In 1770, Governor Portola, with
another expedition, again set out from San Di-
ego by his former route to search for the Bay of
Monterey. There, on the 3d of June, 1770,
Father Junipero Serra, who had come by sea
from San Diego, founded the mission of San
Carlos Borromco de Monterey, the second mis-
sion founded in California, and Portola took
possession of the country in the name of the
king of Spain. The founding of new missions
progres.scd steadily. .\t the close of the century
eighteen had been founded, and a chain of these
missionary establishments extended from San
Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. The neo-
phyte population of these, in 1800, numbered
fourteen thousand souls.

The buildings of the different missions of Cali-
fornia were constructed after the same general
plan ; the principal variation being in the archi-
tecture of the church. Col. J. J. Warner, a
pioneer of 1831, who saw tlic missions in their
prime, thus describes the missionary establish-
ments : "As soon after the founding of a mis-
sion as its circninstauccs would permit, a large

pilr of i)uildings in the form of a (luadrangle.
composed in part of burnt brick but chiefly of
sun-dried ones, was erected around a spacious
court. A large and capacious church which usu-
ally occupied one of the outei" corners of the
(|uadrangle, was a necessary and conspicuous
part of the pile. In these massive buildings
covered with red tile, were the habitation of the
friars, rooms for guests, and for the major-
domos and their families, hospital wards, store
houses and granaries, rooms for the carding,
spinning and weaving of woolen fabrics, shops
for blacksmiths, joiners and carpenters, sad-
dlers, shoemakers, soap boilers, and cellars for
storing the products (wine and brandy) of the
vineyards. Near the habitation of the friars and
in front of the large building, another building
of similar materials was placed and used as quar-
ters for a small number — about a corporal's
guard of soldiers, tmder command of a non-
commissioned ofificer, to hold the Indian neo-
phytes in check, as well as to protect the mission
from the attacks of the hostile Indians. The
soldiers at each mission also acted as couriers,
carrying from mission to mission the corre-
spondence of the government officers and the
friars. These small detachments of soldiers
which were stationed at each mission were fur-
nished by one or the other of the military posts
at San Diego or Santa Barbara both of which
were military garrisons."

The location of a mission was decided by the
number of Indians in the immediate neighbor-
hood who could be brought into the fold. As
the Indian rancherias were located near a stream
and in the most fertile part of the valley, the
missionary establishments with but very few ex-
ceptions occupied the best agricultural lands of
California. It was not so much the padres as
the Indians who decided the location. These
establishments were separated far enough so
tliat their jurisdiction did not conflict. Their
distance apart varied from twenty to sixty miles.
Each mission was directed by two friars. One of
these superintended the mission buildings and
conducted the religious instruction of the Indi-
ans. The other supervised the business affairs
of the mission, but it frequently happened that
where one of the padres was a man of great
force of character, like Zalvidea at San Gabriel
and Peyri at San Luis Rey, he ruled supreme
in all capacities, and there was no division of
administration.

It is useless to discuss what the missions
miglit have accomplished for the Indian had not
the "blight of secularization" struck them. From
their own statistics it becomes evident that at
the large death rate which prevailed in them
and their rapid decline in population during the

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

lifu-L'ii to t\vciit\ -Nears previmis to seculariza-
tion, the neophytes would in two or three dec-
ades at most have become practically extinct
and the missions tenantless.

What under most favorable conditions and the
ablest management they did accomplish for the
Indian was perhaps best shown at San Gabriel
under the rule of Zalvidea.

LTnder him San Gabriel became the most per-
fect type of the missionary establishments of
Aha California and the best illustration of what
the mission system under the most favorable
circumstances could and did accomplish for the
Indian.

Padre Zalvidea came to the mission in 1806
and was removed to Capistrano in 1826. He
was a clerical Napoleon — a man born to rule in
any sphere of life into which he might be
thrown. Hugo Reid says, "He possessed a pow-
erful mind, which was as ambitious as it was
powerful, and as cruel as it was ambitious. He
remodeled the general system of government at
the mission, putting everything in order and
placing every person in his proper station.
Everything under him was organized and that
organization kept up with the lash."

"The neophytes were taught' trades; there
were soap makers, tanners, shoemakers, car-
penters, blacksmiths, bakers, fishermen, brick
and tile makers, cart makers, weavers, deer
hunters, saddle makers, shepherds and vaqueros.
Large soap works were erected, tannery yards
established, tallow works, cooper, blacksmith,
carpenter and other shops, all in operation.
Large spinning rooms, where might be seen 50
or 60 women turning their spindles merrily ; and
there were looms for weaving wool, cotton and

llax. Storehouses filled with grain, and ware-
houses of manufactured products testified to the
industry of the Indians."

The Mission San Gabriel became the largest
manufacturing center in California. Zalvidea in
a short time mastered the language of the natives
and preached to them every Sunday in their own
tongue. He looked closely after their morals
and instilled industry into them with the lash.
Reid says, "He seemed to consider whipping as
meat and drink to them, for they had it night
and morning." The mission furnished besides
its own workmen laborers for the rancheros and
the pueblo of Los Angeles. The old Church of
Our Lady of the Angeles was built by neophyte
laborers and mechanics from the mission, hired
out at the compensation of one real (i2i cents)
a day.

It would seem, from the industrial training
the natives had received through the three gen-
erations that came on the stage of action in mis-
sion life between 1770 and 1835, that they might
have become self-dependent and self support-
ing; that they might have become capable of
self-government and fitted for citizenship under
Spain, which was the purpose for which the mis-
sions were established ; and yet we find them,
at San Gabriel in little more than a decade from
the time wdien Zalvidea had raised this mission
to such industrial eminence, helpless and incap-
able— the serf and the slave of the white man,
or savage renegades in the mountains.

The causes that brought about the seculariza-
tion of the missions, the defects in the mission
system, and the decline and fall of the neophyte
will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

THE INDIANS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

TO THEORIZE upon the origin of the
California Indians would be as unprofita-
ble as to attempt the solution of the
ethnological problem of why, living in a country
with a genial climate, a productive soil and all
the requisites necessary to develop a superior
race, the aborigines of California should have
been among the most degraded specimens of
the North American Indians.

In 1542, when Cabrillo sailed along the coast
of California, he found villages of half-naked
savages subsisting by fishing and on the natural
products of the soil. Two hundred and twenty-
seven years later, when Portola led his expedi-

tion from San Diego to Monterey, he found the
natives existing under the same conditions. Two
centuries had wrought no change in them for
the better; nor is it probable that ten centuries
would have made any material improvement in
their condition. They seemed incapable of
evolution.

The Indians of the interior valleys and those
of the coast belonged to the same general family.
There were no great tribal divisions like those
that existed among the Indians cast of the
Rocky Mountains. Each ranrlu-ria was to a
certain extent independent of all others, al-
though at times they were known to combine

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

for war or plunder. Although not warlike, they
sometimes resisted the whites in brittle with
bravery and intelligence.

Each village had its own territory in which to
lumt and fish and its own section in which to
gather nuts, seeds and herbs. While their mode
of living was somewhat nomadic, they seem to
have had a fixed location for their ranchcrias.
Some of these ranchcrias, or towns, were quite
large. Hugo Reid places the number of their
towns within the limits of what was Los Angeles
County in 185 1 at forty. "Their huts," he says
"were made of sticks covered in around with
flag mats worked or plaited, and each village
generally contained from 500 to 1,500 huts.
Suanga (near what is now the site of Wilming-
ton) was the largest and most populous village,
being of great extent." If these huts were all
occupied by families Reid's estimate of the size
of the Indian towns is evidently too large. Por-
tola's expedition found no very populous towns
when it passed through this section in 1769.

The Indian village of Yang-na was located
within the present limits of Los Angeles City.
It was a large town, as Indian towns go. Its
location was between what is now Aliso and
First Street, in the neighborhood of Alameda
Street. Father Crespi, one of the two Francis-
can friars who accompanied Portola's expedi-
tion, in his diary thus describes the first meeting
of the white men and the Indian inhabitants of
Yang-na: "Immediately at our arrival about
eight Indians came to visit us from a large
ranchcria situated pleasantly among the woods
lOn the river's bank. The gentiles made us pres-
Jents of trays heaped with pinales, chia* and other
'lerbs. The captain carried a string of shell
jeads and they threw us three handfuls. Some
of the old men smoked from well-made clay
bowls, blowing three times, smoke in our faces.
We gave them some tobacco and a few beads
and they retired well satisfied."

On the evening of August 2, the expedition
had encamped on the east side of the river near
the point where the Downey Avenue bridge now
crosses it.

I'ather Crespi continues, "Thursday (August
3, 1769), at half p:ist six, we set out and forded
the Porciuncula River, where it leaves the moun-
tains to enter the jilain." (This would be about
where the Buena \ isla Street bridge now spans
the river.) "After crossing the river we found

* Chia, which Father Crespi frequently mentions in
Ills diary, is a small, gray, oblong seed, procured from
a plant having a number 01 seed vessels on a straight
slalk, one above another, liko wild sage. This, roasted
and ground into meal, was eaten with cold water, being
of a glutinous consistency and very cooling. It was a
favorite article of food with the Indians.

ourselves in a vineyard among wild grape vines
and nuinerous rose bushes in full bloom. The
ground is of a rich, black, clayish soil, and will
produce whatever kind of grain one may desire
to cultivate. We kept on our road to the west,
passing over like excellent pastures. After one-
half league's march we approached the rancherij.
of this locality. Its Indians came out to meet us
lioivling like zvolvcs. We also greeted them, and
they wanted to make us a gift of seeds, but not
having at hand wherein to carry it we did not
accept their present. The Gentiles, seeing our
refusal, threw a few handfuls on the ground and
scattered the rest to the wnnds."

The aborigines of Los Angeles seem to have
been a hospitable race. From their throwing
away their gifts when the Spaniards refused
them it would seem that it was a violation of the
rules of Indian etiquette to take back a present.
Throughout their march Portola's explorers
were treated hospitably by the savages. The
Indians lived to regret their kindness to the
Spaniards.

After the founding of San Gabriel the In-
dian dwellers of Yang-na were gathered into the
mission fold, and no doubt many a time they
howled louder under the lash of the Mission
major-domos than they did w'hen w^ith their
tribal yell they welcomed the Spaniards to their
ranchcria in the woods by the river called
Porciuncula.

Hugo Reid, in the series of letters referred to
in a previous chapter of this volume, has left us
an account of the mode of life, the religion, the
manners, customs, myths and traditions of the
aborigines who once inhabited what at the time
he wrote (1851) was Los Angeles county. Los
.\ngeles then included, besides its present area,
all of the territory now in Orange and San Ber-
nardino and part of that in Kern and Riverside
counties. Reid was married to an Indian woinan
and had exceptional facilities for studying them.
I regard his account as the best of any published.
The Indians of San Diego differed but little
from those of Los Angeles. From these letters
I briefly collate some of the leading character-
istics of the Indians of Southern California.

GOVERNMENT.

"Before the Indians belonging to the greater
part of this county were known to the whites
they comprised, as it were, one great family
under distinct chiefs ; they spoke nearly the
same language, with the exception of a few
words, and were more to be distinguished by a
local intonation of the voice than anything else.
Being related by blood and tnarnage, war was
never carried on between them. When war was
consequently waged against neighboring tribes

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of no affinity it was a common cause. * * *
"The government of the people was invested
in the hands of their chiefs, each captain com-
manding his own lodge. The command was
hereditary in a family. If the right line of de-
scent ran out they elected one of the same kin
nearest in blood. Laws in general were made
as required, with some few standing ones. Rob-
bery was never known among them. Murder
was of rare occurrence and punished with death.
Incest was likewise punished with death, being
held in such abhorrence that marriages between
kinsfolk were not allowed. The manner of put-
ting to death was by shooting the delinquent
with arrows. If a quarrel ensued between two
parties the chief of the lodge took cognizance
in the case and decided according to the testi-
mony produced. But if a quarrel occurred be-
tween parties of distinct lodges each chief heard
the witnesses produced by his own people, and
then, associated with the chief of the opposite
side, they passed sentence. In case they could
not agree an impartial chief was called in, who
hoard the statements made by both and he alone
decided. There was no appeal from his decision.
Whipping was never resorted to as a punish-
ment. All fines and sentences consisted in de-
livering shell money, food and skins."

RELIGION.

"They believed in one God, the Maker and
Creator of all things, whose name was and is
held so sacred among them as hardly ever to be
used, and when used only in a low voice. That
name is Qua-o-ar. When they have to use the
name of the Supreme Being on an ordinary oc-
casion they substitute in its stead the word Y-yo-
lia-ring-!iaiu, or 'the Giver of Life.' They have
only one word to designate life and soul."

"The world was at one time in ^a state of
chaos, until God gave it its present* formation,
fi.xing it on the shoulders of seven giants, made
expressly for this end. They have their names,
and when they move themselves an earthquake
is tlic consequence. Animals were then formed,
and lastly man and woman were formed, sep-
arately from earth, and ordered to live togetlier.
The man's name w as Tobohar and the woman's
Pobavit. Go<l ascended to Heaven immediately
afterwards, where he receives the souls of all
who die. They had no bad spirits connected
with their creed, and never heard of a 'devil' or a
'heir until tlie coming of the Spaniards. They
l)clieved in no resurrection whatever. Having
notliing to care about their souls it made them
stoical in regard to death."

M.\RRI.\CE.

"Cliicfs had one, two or tlu'ce wives, a> thrir
inclination dictated, the subjects only one. Wlicn

a person wished to marry and had selected a
suitable partner, he advertised the same to all his
relatives, even to the nineteenth cousin. On a
day appointed the male portion of the lodge
brought in a collection of money beads. All the
relations having come in with their share, they
(the males) proceeded in a body to the residence
of the bride, to whom timely notice had been
given. All of the bride's female relations had
been assembled and the money was equally
divided among them, the bride receiving noth-
ing, as it was a sort of purchase. After a few
days the bride's female relations returned the
compliment by taking to the bridegroom's dwell-
ing baskets of meal made of chia, which was dis-
tributed among the male relatives. These pre-
liminaries over, a day was fixed for the cere-
mony, which consisted in decking out the bride
in innumerable strings of beads, paint, feathers
and skins. On being ready she was taken up in
the arms of one of her strongest male relatives,
who carried her dancing, toward her lover's hab-
itation. All of her family, friends and neighbors
accompanied, dancing around, throwing food
and edible seeds at her feet every step, which
were collected in a scramble as best they could
by the spectators. The relations of the man met
them half way, and, taking the bride, carried her
themselves, joining in the ceremonious walking
dance. On arriving at the bridegroom's (who
was sitting within his hut) she was inducted into
her new residence by being placed alongside of
her husband, while baskets of seeds were liber-
ally emptied on their heads to denote blessing
and plenty. This was likewise scrambled for
by the spectators, who, on gathering. up all of
the bride's seed cake, departed leaving them to
enjoy their honeymoon according to usage. A
grand dance was given on the occasion, the war-
riors doing the dancing; the young women do-
ing the singing. The wife never visited her rela-
tions from tliat day forth, although they were at
liberty to visit her."

"When a person died all the kin collected to
mourn his or her loss. Each one had his own
peculiar mode of crying or howling, as easily
distinguished the one from the other as one song-
is from another. After lamentnig awhile a
mourning dirge was sung in a low, whining tone,
accompanied by a shrill whistle produced by
blowing into the tube of a deer's leg bone. Danc-
ing can hardly be said to have formed a part of
the rites, as it was merely a monotonous action
of the foot on the ground. This was continued
ahernately until the liody showed signs of decay,
when it was wrapjied up in the covering used in
life. The hands were crossed upon tlie breast

■J 4

IISTORICAL AND illUGRAi'll KAL KKCOKI).

ami the 1)lk1\ lictl from head to foot. A grave
having been dug in tlieir burial ground, the body
was deposited with seeds, etc., according to the
means of the family. If the deceased were the
head of a family or a favorite son, the hut in
which he lived was burned up. as likewise all his
personal effects."

FEUDS — TItl-; .SOXG FIGHTS.

"Animosity between persons or families was
of long duration, particularly between those of
different tribes. These feuds descended from
father to son, until it was impossible to tell for
how many generations. They were, however,
harmless in themselves, being merely a war of
songs, composed and sung against the conflict-
ing party, and they were all of the most obscene
and indecent language imaginable. There are
two families at this day (185 1) whose feud com-
menced before Spaniards were even dreamed of,
and Ihey still continue yearly singmg and danc-
ing against each other. The one resides at the
?*Iission of San Gabriel and the other at San
Juan Capistrano: they both lived at San Bernar-
dino when the quarrel commenced. During the
singing they continue stamping on the ground
to express the pleasure they would derive from
tramping on the graves of their foes. Eight
days was the duration of the song fight."

UTENSILS.

"From the bark of nettles was manufactured
thread for nets, fishing lines, etc. Needles, fish-
hooks, awls and many other articles were made
of either bone or shell ; for cutting up meat a
knife of cone was invariably used. Mortars and
pestles were made of granite. Sharp stones and
perseverance were the only things used in their
manufacture, and so skillfully did they combine
the two that their work was always remarkably
miiform. Their pots to cook in were made of
soapstone of about an inch in thickness, and
procured from the Indians of Santa Catalina.
Their baskets, made out of a certain species of
rush, were used only for dry purposes, although
they were waterproof. The vessels in use for
liquids were roughly made of rushes and plas-
tered outside and in with bitumen or pitch, called
by them 'sanot.' "

"The Indians of the Los Angeles valley had
an elaborate mythology. The Cahuilla tribes
have a tradition of their creation, .\ccording to
this tradition the primeval .'\dam and Eve were
created by the Supreme L'cing in the waters of
a nortliern sea. They came up out of the water
ni)(Mi the land, which tliev found to be soft aii<l

miry. They traveled southward in search of land
suitable for their sustenance and residence,
which they found at last upon the mountain
ridges of Southern California."

Of their myths and traditions, Hugo Rcid
says : "They were of incredible length and con-
tained more metamorphoses than Ovid could
have engendered in his brain had he lived a thou-
sand years."

Some of these Indian m_\ ths, when divested of
their crudities and the ideas clothed in fitting
language, are as beautiful and as poetical as
tJiose of Greece or Scandinavia.

In the myth given below there is, in the moral,
a marked similarity to the Grecian fable of Or-
pheus and Eurydice. The central thought in
each is the impossibility of the dead returning to
earth. To more clearly illustrate the parallelism
of ideas, I give a brief outline of the Grecian
myth :

Eurydice, stung by an adder, dies, and her
spirit is borne to the Plutonian realms. Orpheus,
her husband, seeking her, enters the dread abode
of the god of the lower world. He strikes his
wonderful lyre, and the sweet music charms the
denizens of hades. They forget their sorrows
and cease from their endless tasks. Pluto,
charmed, allows Eurydice to depart with her
lover on one condition, Orpheus is not to look
upon her until they reach the upper world. He
disobeys and she is snatched from him. Discon-
solate, he wanders over the earth till death
unites him to his loved one.

Ages ago. so runs the Indian myth, a power-
ful people dwelt on the banks of the Arroyo
Seco, and hunted over the hills and plains of
what are now our modern Pasadena and the
\'alley of San Fernando. They conunitted a
grievous crime against the Great Spirit. A pes-
tilence destroyed them, all save a boy and a girl,
who were saved by a foster mother possessed
of supernatural powers. They grew to manhood
and womanhood, and became husband and wife.
Their devotion to each other angered the foster
mother, who fancied herself neglected. She
plotted to destroy the wife. The young woman,
divining her fate, told her husband that should
he at any time feel a tear drop on his shoulder,
he might know that she was dead. While he was
away hunting the dread signal came. He has-
tened back to destroy the hag who had brought
death to his wife, but the sorceress escaped. Dis-
consolate, he threw himself on the grave of his
wife. For three days he neither ate nor drank.
On the third day a whirlwind arose from the
grave and moved toward the south. Perceiving
in it the form of his wife, he hastened on until
he overtook it. Then a voice came out the
cloud saving: "U'liillur 1 g<i lliou canst not

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

come. Thou art of eartli, but I am dead to tlic
world. Return, my husband, return !" He plead
piteously to be taken with her. Slie consenting,
he was wrapt in the cloud with her and borne
;icross the illimitable sea that separates the abode
of the living from that of the dead. When they
reached the realms of ghosts a spirit voice said :
"Sister, thou comest to us with an order of earth ;
what dost thou bring?" Then she confessed that
she had brought her living husband. "Take him
away !" said a voice, stern and commanding. She
])lead that he might remain, and recounted his
many virtues. To test his virtues, the spirits
gave him four labors. First, to bring a feather
from the top of a pole so high that its summit
was invisible. Next, to split a hair of great
length and exceeding fineness; third, to make
on the ground a map of the Constellation of the
Lesser Bear, and locate the North Star, and last,
to slay the celestial deer that had the form of
black beetles and were exceedingly swift. With
the aid of his wife he accomplished all the tasks.
But no mortal was allowed to dwell in the abodes
of death. "Take thou thy wife and return with
her to the earth," said the spirit. "Yet remem-
ber, thou shalt not speak to her ; thou shalt not
touch her until three suns have passed. A pen-
alty awaits thy disobedience." He promised.
They pass from the spirit land and travel to the
confines of matter. By day she is invisible, but
by the flickering light of his campfire he sees
the dim outline of her form. Three days pass.
As the sun sinks behind the western hills he
builds his campfire. She appears before him
in all the beauty of life. He stretches forth his
arms to embrace her. She is snatched from his
grasp. Although invisible to him, yet the upper
rim of the great orb of day hung above the west-
ern verge. He had broken his promise. Like
Orpheus, disconsolate, he wandered over the
earth, until, relenting, the spirits sent their ser-
vant Death, to bring him to Tecupar (heaven).

The following bears a resemblance to the
Norse myth of Gyoll, the River of Death and its
glittering bridge, over which the spirits of the
dead pass to Hel or the land of the spirits. The
Indian, however, had no idea of any kind of a
bridge except a foot log across a stream. The
myth in a crude form was narrated to me many
years ago by an old pioneer.

According to this myth when an Indian died
his spirit form was conducted by an unseen
guide over a mountain trail unknown and in-
accessible to mortals to a rapidly flowing river
that separated the abode of the living from that
of the dead. As the trail descended to the river
it branched to the right and the left. The right
hand path led to a foot bridge made of the nuis-
sive trunk of a rough-barked pine which

spanned the Indian Styx ; the left led to a slen-
der, fresh-pealed birch pole that hung high
above the roaring torrent. At the parting of
the trail an inexorable fate forced the bad to
the left, while the spirit form of the good passed
on to the right and over the rough-barked pine
to the happy hunting grounds, the Indian
heaven. The bad, reaching the river's brink and
gazing longingly upon the delights beyond, es-
sayed to cross the slippery pole — a slip, a slide,
a clutch at empty space, and the ghostly spirit
form was hurled into the mad torrent below,
and was borne by the rushing waters into a vast
Lethean lake, where it sank beneath the waves
and was blotted from existence forever.

The Indians of the Santa Barbara Channel,
according to the reports of the early explorers
of that region, were somewhat superior in ap-
pearance and intelligence to those of the country
further south. The mainland bordering on the
channel and the Channel Islands seem to have
been more densely populated than any other
portion of California. These natives had a dif-
ferent religious belief, or at least a different god
from those further south. The god of the Chan-
nel Indians was named Chupu. He was the
deification of good and Nunaxus the personifi-
cation of evil. Chupu created Nunaxus, who
rebelled against his creator and tried to over-
throw him, but Chupu was all-powerful, and to
punish this Indian Satan, he created man who,
devouring the animal and vegetable products
of the earth, checked the physical growth of
Nunaxus, who had hoped by liberal feeding to
become like unto a mountain. Foiled in his
ambition, Nunaxus ever afterwards sought to in-
jure mankind.

To secure the protection of Chupu, offerings
were made to him and dances were instituted in
his honor. Flutes and other instruments were
played to attract his attention. \\'hcn Nunaxus
brought calamit)' upon the Indians in the shajK"
of dry years which caused a dearth of animal
and vegetable products or sent sickness to af-
flict them, their old men interceded with Chupu
to protect them ; and to exorcise their Satan
they shot arrows and threw stones in the direc-
tion in which he was supposed to be. While
Chupu was the god of good he could punish
an apostate or a renegade with calamity and
death. In 1801. a pulmonary epidemic destroyed
great numbers of the Indians in the Channel
Missions. Chupu revealed to a neophyte in a
dream that the plague was sent upon the In-
dians for their apostasy, and all who had been
baptized would die unless they renounced
Christianity. The story of the revelation
spread among tlie nenphytcs nf thr different
missions and the\' hastened Id propiliate Chiiini

-16

HISTORICAL AND UlUGRAi'lIiCAL RECORD.

with offerings and to divest themselves of their
Christianity. The plague abated and the In-
dians returned to their allegiance. When the
padres learned what had been going on they

were greatly disturbed for they knew the old
superstition was still prevalent and had Chupu
decreed their deaths the natives would have
executed his will.

CHAPTER V.

THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

OF THE twenty-one Franciscan Missions
founded in California from 1769 to 1823,
nine were in the territory now desig-
nated as Southern California. Two of these,
San Diego and San Luis Rey, were located in
what is now San Diego County; one, San Juan
Capistrano, in Orange ; two, San Gabriel and
San Fernando, in Los Angeles; one, San Buena-
ventura, in Ventura ; and three, Santa Barbara,
La Purisima and Santa Inez, are in Santa Bar-
bara County. The aststcncia, or auxiliary, of
San Antonia de Pala is in San Diego County.
The mission buildings of San Diego, San Juan
Capistrano, San Fernando, La Purisima and
Santa Inez are in ruins. The church buildings
of San Luis Rey, San Gabriel, San Buenaven-
tura and Santa Barbara are in a fairly good
state of preservation and services are still held
in them.

SAN DIEGO DE ALC.'\LA.

The four expeditions fitted out by Jose de
Galvez under the instructions from the Viceroy
of New Spain for the physical and spiritual con-
quest of Nueva California w'ere all united at
San Diego July ist, 1769. The leaders, Gov-
ernor Caspar de Portola and President Junipero
Serra, lost no time in beginning their work.
On the 14th of July, Governor Portola set out
on his exploration of a land route to the Bay
of Monterey and two days later Father Junipero
Serra founded the first mission in California for
the conversion of the Indians.

The Mission of San Diego de Alcalii was
founded July 16, 1769, by the president of the
Lower California Missions, Father Junipero
Serra. The original site was at a place called
by the Indians "Cosoy," near the presidio, now
Old Town.

Temporary buildings were erected here, but
the location proved unsuitable and in August,
1774, the mission was removed about two
leagues up the San Diego River to a place called
by the natives "Nipauay." Here a dwelling
for the padres, a storehouse, a smithy and a
wooden church 18x57 feet were erected.

The mission buildings at Cosoy were given
np to tlie ])residio except two moms, one for

the visiting priests and the other for a tem-
porary store room for mission supplies coming
by sea. The missionaries had been fairly suc-
cessful in the conversions of the natives and
some progress had been made in teaching them
to labor. On the night of November 4, 1775,
without any previous warning, the gentiles or
unconverted Indians in great numbers attacked
the mission. One of the friars. Fray Funster,
escaped to the soldiers' quarters ; the other,
Father Jaume, was killed by the savages. The
blacksmith also was killed ; the carpenter suc-
ceeded in reaching the soldiers. The Indians
set fire to the buildings, which were nearly all
of wood. The soldiers, the priest and carpenter
were driven into a small adobe building that
had been used as a kitchen. Two of the sol-
diers were wounded. The corporal, one soldier
and the carpenter were all that were left to hold
at bay a thousand howling fiends. The cor-
poral, who was a sharpshooter, did deadly exe-
cution on the savages. Father Funster saved
the defenders from being blown to pieces by
the explosion of a fifty-pound sack of gunpow-
der. He spread his cloak over the sack and sat
on it, thus preventing the power from ignit-
ing by the sparks from the burning buildings.
The fight lasted till daylight, when the hostiles
fled. The Christian Indians who professed to
have been coerced by the savages then appeared
and made many protestations of sorrow at what
had happened. The military commander was
not satisfied that they were innocent, but the
padres believed them. New buildings were
erected at the same place, the soldiers of the
presidio for a time assisting the Indians in their
erection.

For )ears the mission was fairly prosperous.
In 1800 the cattle numbered 6,960 and the agri-
cultural products amounted to 2.600 bushels.
From 1769 to 1834 there were 6,638 persons
baptized and 4,428 buried. The largest number
of cattle possessed by the mission at one time
was 9,245 head in 1822. The total number of
domestic animals belonging to the mission that
year was 30,325. The old building standing on
the mission site at the head of the vnllcv is the
tliinl chiuvli erected there, 'I'lic first, built of

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

4',

\\ood and roofed with tiles, was erected in 1774;
tlic second, built of adobe, was completed in
1780 and the walls of this were badly cracked
b}- an earthquake in 1803; the third was begun
in 1808 and dedicated November 12, 1813. The
mission was secularized in 1834.

SAX CABRIliF. ARCANGEL.

San Gabriel Arcangel was the second mission
founded in Southern California and the fourth
in the territory. Father Junipero Serra had
gone north in 1770 and founded the mission of
San Carlos Borromeo on Monterey Bay and
the following year he established the mission of
San Antonio de Padua on the Salinas River
about twenty leagues south of Monterey.

On the 6th of August, 1771, a cavalcade of
soldiers and muleteers escorting Padres Somera
and Cambon set out from San Diego over the
trail made by Portola's expedition in 1769
(when it went north in search of Monterey Bay)
to found a new mission on the River Jesus de
Los Temblores or to give it its fu'.l name — El
Rio del Dulcisimo Nombre de Jesus de Los
TembloreS' — The River of the Sweetest Name
of Jesus of the Earthquakes. Not finding a
suitable location on this river (now the Santa
Ana) they pushed on to the Rio San Miguel,
also known as the Rio de Los Temblores.

Here they selected a site where wood and
water were abundant. A stockade of poles was
built, enclosing a square within which a church
was erected, covered with boughs.

September 8, 1771, the mission was formally
founded and dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel.
The Indians who at the coming of the Span-
iards were docile and friendly, a few days after
the founding of the mission suddenly attacked
two soldiers who were guarding the horses.
One of these soldiers had outraged the wife of
the chief who led the attack. The soldier who
committed the crime killed the chieftain with a
musket ball and the other Indians fled. The
soldiers then cut off the chief's head and
fastened it to a pole at the presidio gate. From
all accounts the soldiers at this mission were
more brutal and barbarous than the Indians and
more in need of missionaries to convert them
than were the savages. The progress of the
mission was slow. At the end of the second year
only 73 children and adults had been baptized.
Father Serra attributed the lack of conversions
to the bad conduct of the soldiers.

The first buildings at the Mission Vieja w^ere
all of wood. The church was 45x18 feet, built
of logs and covered with tule thatch. The
church and the other wooden buildings used by
the padres stood within a Square inclosed by
pointed stakes. In 1776, five years after its

founding, the mission was moved from its first
location to a new site about a league distant
from the old. The old site was subject to
overflow by the river. The adobe ruins pointed
out to tourists as the foundations of the old
mission are the debris of a building erected for
a ranch house between fifty and sixty years ago.
The buildings at the Mission Vieja were all of
wood and no trace of them remains. A chapel
was first built at the new site. It was replaced
by a church built of adobes 108 feet long by
21 feet wide. The present stone church begun
about 1794, and completed about 1806, is the
fourth church erected.

The mission attained the acme of its impor-
tance in 1817, when there were 1701 neophytes
in the mission fold.

The largest grain crop raised at any mission
was that harvested at San Gabriel in 1821,
which amounted to 29,400 bushels. The num-
ber of cattle belonging to the mission in 183c
was 25,725. During the whole period of the
mission's existence, i. e. from 1771 to 1834, ac-
cording to statistics compiled by Bancroft from
mission records, the total number of baptisms
was 7,854 : of which 4,355 were Indian adults
and 2,459 were Indian children and the re-
mainder gente de razon, or people of reason.
The deaths were 5,656, of which 2,916 were In-
dian adults and 2.363 Indian children. If all
the Indian children born were baptized it would
seem (if the statistics are correct) that but very
few ever grew up to manhood and womanhood.
In 1834, the year of its secularization, its neo-
phyte population was 1,320.

The missionaries of San Gabriel established a
station at old San Bernardino about 1820. It
was not an asistencia like Pala but merely an
agricultural station or ranch headquarters. The
buildings were destroyed by the Indians in 1834.

SAN JU.-^N CAPISTRANO.

The first attempt to found the Mission of San
Juan Capistrano was made October 30, 1775.
A cross was erected and a mass said in a
hut constructed for the purpose. The revolt of
the Indians at San Diego on the night of Nov-
ember 5th, and the massacre of Father Jaume
and others, news of which reached San Juan on
the 7th, called away the soldiers. The bells
which had been hung on the branch of a tree
were taken down and buried and the soldiers
and padres hastened to San Diego. November
I, 1776, President Serra and Fathers Mugartc-
gui and Amurro with an escort of soldiers re-
established the mission. The bells were dug up
and hung upon a tree. Their ringing assembled
.n number of the natives. Ancnramada of boughs
was constructed and Father Serra said mass.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

The first location of the mission was several
miles northeast of the present site, and at the
foot of the mountain. The former location is
still known as La Mission Vieja. Whether the
change of location was made at the time of the
re-establishment or later is not known. The
erection of a stone church was begun in Febru-
ary, 1797, and completed in 1806. A master
builder had been brought from JMexico, and
under his superintendence the neophytes did the
mechanical labor. It was the largest and hand-
somest church in California and was the pride
of mission architecture. The year 1812 was
known in California as cl ano dc los temblorcs —
the year of earthquakes. For months the seis-
mic disturbance was almost continuous. On
Sunday, December 8, 181 2, a severe shock
threw down the lofty church tower, which
crashed through the vaulted roof on the congre-
gation below. The padre \vho was celebrating
mass escaped through the sacristy. Of the fifty
persons present only five or six escaped. The
church was never rebuilt. "There is not much
doubt," says Bancroft, "that the disaster was
due rather to faulty construction than to the
violence of the temblor. The edifice was of the
usual cruciform shape, about 90x180 feet on
the ground, with very thick walls and arched
dome-like roof all constructed of stones im-
bedded in mortar or cement. The stones were
not hewn but of irregular size and shape, a
kind of structure evidently requiring great skill
to ensure solidity." The mission reached its
maximum in 1819; from that on till the date of
its secularization there was a rapid decline in
the numbers of its live stock and of its neo-
phytes.

This was one of the missions in which Gov-
ernor Figueroa tried his experiment of forming
Indian pueblos of the neophytes. For a time
the experiment was a partial success, but event-
ually it went the way of all the other missions.
Its lands were granted to private individuals and
the neophytes scattered. Its picturesque ruins
are a great attraction to tourists.

SAX BUENAVi:\TLR.\.

The founding of San Buenaventura had been
long delayed. It was to have been among the
first missions founded by Father Serra ; it
proved to be his last. On the 26th of March,
1782, Governor de Neve accompanied by Father
Serra (who had come down afoot from San
Carlos) and Father Cambon with a convoy of
soldiers and a number of neophytes set out from
San Gabriel to found the mission. At the first
camping place. Governor de Neve was recalled
to San Gabriel by a message from Col. Pedro

Fages informing him of the. orders of the coun-
cil of war to proceed against the Yumas, who
had the previous year destroyed the two mis-
sions on the Colorado river and massacred the
missionaries.

On the 29th the remainder of the company
reached a place on the coast named by Portola
in 1769, Asuncion dc Nuestra Senora, which
had for some time been selected for a mission
site. Near it was a large Indian raiichcria.

On the 31st of March, which was Easter Sun-
day, the mission was formally founded with the
usual ceremonies and dedicated to San Buena-
ventura, Giovanni di Fidanza of Tuscany, born
in 1221. It is said that St. Francis of Assissi
(founder of the Franciscan Order), meeting him
one day and foreseeing his future greatness, ex-
claimed, "O buona ventura!" and the name
Buenaventura in Spanish clung to him.* He
was also called the "Seraphic Doctor" from his
knowledge of theology.

The progress of the mission was slow at first.
Only two adults were baptized in 1782. The
first building built of wood was destroyed by
fire. The church still standing, built of brick
and adobe, was completed and dedicated Sep-
tember 9, 1809. The earthquake of December
8. 1812. damaged the church to such an extent
that the tower and part of the facade had to be
rebuilt. "The whole mission site appeared to
settle and the fear of being engulfed by the sea
drove all away to San Joaquin y Santa Ana
where they remained until April, 1813."!

The mission reached its greatest prosperity
in 1816, when it had a neophyte population of
1,330, and owned 23.400 cattle. Vancouver, the
English explorer, who visited the mission in
November, 1793, says, "The garden of Buena-
ventura far exceeded anything I had before met
in these regions, both in respect of the quantity,
quality and variety of its excellent productions,
not only indigenous to the country, but apper-
taining to the temperate as well as torrid zone :
not one species having yet been sown or planted
that had not flourished. These have principally
consisted of apples, pears, plums, figs, oranges,
grapes, peaches and pomegranates, together with
the plantain, banana, cocoanut, sugar cane, indigo
and a great variety of the necessary and useful
kitchen herbs, plants and roots. All these were
flourishing io the greatest health and perfection,
though separated from the seaside only by two
or three fields of corn that were cultivated within
a few yards of the surf." The mission was secu-
larized in 1837. The cliurch, greatly modern-
ized, is still used for holding services.

♦Bancroft, Vol. I, 376.
tFranciscans in Californi:

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

SANTA BARBARA.

Governor Felipe de Neve in his report of
June, 1777, urged the establishing of three mis-
sions and a central presidio on the Santa Bar-
bara Channel. His report was approved by
General Croix, and Rivera was sent to recruit
settlers in Sinaloa and Sonora for the Channel
establishments, and also for the pueblos of San
Jose and Los Angeles. The pueblos were
founded, but the founding of the missions and
presidio from one cause or another had been
delayed. After the founding of the mission of
San Buenaventura, March 31, 1782, about the
middle of the April following Governor de
Neve, who had come up from San Gabriel,
Father Serra, who was still at San Buenaven-
tura, and a force of sixty soldiers with their
officers, proceeded up the coast to found the
presidio. After marching about nine leagues
the Governor called a halt in a beautiful valley
near the coast. Having found a suitable loca-
tion where wood and water could easily be pro-
cured, the presidio of Santa Barbara was found-
ed. Father Serra had hoped that the mission
would be founded at the same time. Disap-
pointed in this, he left for Monterey, where he
expected to meet six new missionaries, who
were reported coming by ship. In this, too, he
was disappointed ; the missionaries did not come
at that time.

The death of Serra in 1784 still further de-
layed the founding, and it was not till the latter
part of 1786 that everything was in readiness
for the establishing of the new mission. On the
22d of November, Father Lasuen, who had
succeeded Father Serra as president of the Cal-
ifornia missions, arrived in Santa Barbara, ac-
companied by two missionaries recently arrived
from Mexico. After a careful survey of differ-
ent locations he selected a site about a mile
distant from the presidio. The place was called
by the Indians Tay-nay-an ("rocky hill"). It was
selected by the padres on account of the abun-
dance of stone for building and also for the plen-
tiful supply of water for irrigation.

On the 15th of December, 1786, Father La-
suen, in a hut of boughs, celebrated the first
mass; but December 4th, the day that the fiesta
of Santa Barbara is commemorated, is consid-
ered the date of its founding. Part of the serv-
ices were held on that day. A chapel built of
adobes and roofed with thatch was erected in
1787. Several other buildings of adobe were
erected the same year. In 1788 tile took the
place of thatch. In 1789 a second church much
larger than the first was built. .\ third church
of adobe was commenced in 1793 and finished
in 1794. A brick portico was added in 179^ and
the walls plastered.

The great earthquake of December, 1812,
demolished the Mission Church and destroyed
nearly all the buildings. The years 1813 and
1814 were spent in removing the debris of the
ruined buildings and in preparing for the erec-
tion of new ones. The erection of the present
Mission Church was begun in 1815. It was com-
pleted and dedicated September 10, 1820.

Father Gaballeria, in his History of Santa Bar-
bara, gives the dimensions of the church as fol-
lows: "Length (including walls), 60 varas ;
width, 14 varas; height, 10 varas (a vara is 34^
inches)." The walls are of stone and rest on a
foundation of rock and cement. They are six
feet thick and are further strengthened by but-
tresses. Notwithstanding the building has with-
stood the storms of four score years, it is still in
an excellent state of preservation. Its exterior
has not been disfigured by attempts at modern-
izing.

The highest neophyte population was reached
at Santa Barbara in 1803, when it numbered
1,792. The largest number of cattle was 5,200,
in 1809. In 1834, the year of secularization, the
neophytes numbered 556, which was a decrease
of 155 from the number in 1830. At such a rate
of decrease it would not, even if mission rule
had continued, have taken more than a dozen
years to depopulate the mission.

LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION.

Two missions, San Buenaventura and Santa
Barbara, had been founded on the Santa
Barbara Channel in accordance with Neve's re-
port of 1777, in which he recommended the
founding of three missions and a presidio in
that district. It was the intention of General
La Croix to conduct these on a dififerent plan
from that prevailing in the older missions. The
natives were not to be gathered into a mission-
ary establishment but were to remain in their
ranchcrias which were to be converted into
mission pueblos. The Indians were to receive
instruction in religion, industrial arts and self-
government while comparatively free from re-
straint. The plan which no doubt originated
with Governor de Neve was a good one the-
oretically and possibly might have been prac-
tically. The missionaries were bitterly opposed
to it! Unfortunately it was tried first in the
Colorado River Missions among the fierce and
treacherous Yumas. The massacre of the
padres and soldiers of these missions was at-
tributed to this innovation.

In establishing the Channel Mission the mis-
sionaries opposed the inauguration of this plan
and bv their persistence succeeded in setting it
aside; and the old system was adopted. La
Purisima Concepcion or the Immaculate Con-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ception of the Blessed Virgin. The third of the
Channel Missions was founded, December 8,
1787, by Father Lasuen at a place called by the
natives Algsacupi. Its location is about twelve
miles from the ocean on the Santa Inez River.
Three years after its founding 300 converts had
been baptized but not all of them lived at the
mission. The first church was a temporary struc-
ture. The second church, built of adobe and
roofed with tile, was completed in 1802. Decem-
ber 21, 1812, an earthquake demolished the
church and also about one hundred adobe
houses of the neophytes. A site across the
river and about four miles distant from the
former one, was selected for new buildings. A
temporary building for a church was erected
then. A new church, built of adobes and roofed
with tile, was completed and dedicated in 1818.

The Indians revolted in 1824 and damaged
the building. They took possession of it and a
battle lasting four hours was fought between
130 soldiers and 400 Indians. -The neophytes
cut loop holes in the church and used two old
rusty cannon and a few guns they possessed ;
but, unused to firearms, they were routed with
the loss of several killed. During the revolt
which lasted several months, four white men
and fifteen or twenty Indians were killed. The
hostiles, most of whom fled to the Tulares, were
finally subdued. The leaders were punished
with imprisonment and the others returned to
their missions.

This mission's population was largest in 1804,
when it numbered 1,520; in 1834, there were
but 407 neophytes connected with it. It was
secularized in Feburary, 1835. During mission
rule from 1787 to 1834 the total number of
Indian children baptized was 1,492; died 902,
which was a lower death rate than at most of
the southern missions.

SAN FERNANDO REY DE ESPANA.

In the closing years of the century, explora-
tions were made for new mission sites in Cali-
fornia. These were to be located between mis-
sions already founded. Among those selected
at that time was the site of the Mission San
Fernando on the Encino rancho, tlien occupied
by Francisco Reyes. Reyes surrendered what-
ever right he had to the land and the padres
occupied his house for a dwelling while new
buildings were in the course of erection.

September 8, 1797, with the usual ceremonies,
the mission was founded by President Lasuen
assisted by Father Dumetz. According to in-
structions from Mexico it was dedicated to San
Fernando Rey de Espana (Fernando III. King
of Spain, 1217-1251). At the end of the year
1797, fifty-five converts lia'l been gathered into

the mission fold and at the end of the century
352 had been baptized.

The adobe church, begun before the close of
the century, was completed and dedicated in
December, 1806. It had a tiled roof. It was
but slightly injured by the great earthquakes of
December, 1812, which were so destructive to
the mission buildings at San Juan Capistrano,
Santa Barbara, La Purisima and Santa Inez.
This mission reached its greatest prosperity in
1819, when its neophyte population numbered
1,080. The largest number of cattle owned l)y
it at one time was 12,800 in 1819.

Its decline was not so rapid as that of some
of the other missions, but the death rate es-
pecially among the children was fully as high.
Of the 1,367 Indian children baptized at it dur-
ing the existence of mission rule 965 or over
seventy per cent died in childhood. It was not
strange that the fearful death rate both of chil-
dren and adults at the missions sometimes
frightened the neophytes into running away.

San Fernando figured frequently in the Cali-
fornia revolutions. It was a sort of a frontier
post to both parties in the civil war of 1837
and 1838. Negotiations between Fremont and
General Andres Pico which resulted in the
treaty of Cahuenga were begun at the mission.
June 17, 1846, Governor Pio Pico sold the ex-
mission to Enlogio de Celis for $14,000. The
money, or at least a part of it, was used by Pico
in fitting out an army to suppress Castro who
was supposed to be fomenting a revolution to
overthrow Pico. The seizure of California by
Commodore Sloat, July 7, 1846, put an end to
Castro's revolution and to Pico's governorship
as well.

Father Bias, the last of the Franciscan mis-
sionaries of California, remained at the mission
until May, 1847. He died at San Gabriel in 1850.

SAN LUIS REY DE FRANCIA.

Several explorations had been made for a mis-
sion site between San Diego and San Juan
Capistrano. There was quite a large Indian
population that had not been brought into the
folds of either mission. In October, 1797, a new
exploration of this territory was ordered and a
site was finally selected although the agri-
cultural advantages were regarded as not satis-
factory.

Governor Barica, February 28, 1798, issued
orders to the comandante at San Diego to
furnish a detail of soldiers to aid in erecting the
necessary buildings. June 13, 1798, President
Lasuen, the successor of President Serra, as-
sisted by Fathers Peyri and Santiago, with the
usual services, founded the new mission. It
was named San Luis Rey de I'rnncin (St. Louis

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

King of France). Its location was near a river
on which was bestowed the name of the mis-
sion. The mission flourished from its very be-
ginning. Its controlHng power was Padre
Antonio Peyri. He remained in charge of it
from its founding almost to its downfall, in all
thirty-three years. He was a man of great ex-
ecutive abilities and under his administration it
became one of the largest and most prosperous
missions in California. It reached its maximum
in 1826, when its neophyte population numbered
2,86g the largest number at one time connected
with any mission in the territory.

The Asisfencia or Auxiliary Mission of San
Antonio was established at Pala, seven leagues
easterly from the parent mission. A chapel was
erected here and regular services held. One of
the padres connected with San Luis Rey was
in charge of this station. Father Peyri left
California in 1831, with the exiled Governor
Victoria. He went to Mexico and from there
to Spain and lastly to Rome where he died. The
mission was converted into an Indian pueblo in
1834, but the pueblo was not a success. Most
of the neophytes drifted to Los Angeles and
San Gabriel. During the Mexican Conquest
American troops were stationed at it. It has
recently been partially repaired and is now used
for a Franciscan school under charge of Father
J. .J. O'Keefe.

SANTA INEZ.

Santa Inez was the last mission founded in
Southern California. It was established Septem-
ber 17, 1804. Its location is about forty miles
northwesterly from Santa Barbara on the ea.st-
erly side of the Santa Inez mountains and eight-
een miles southeasterly from La Purisima.
Father Tapis, president of the mission from
1803 to 1812, preached the sermon and was as-
sisted in the ceremonies by Fathers Cipres,
Calzada and Gutierrez. Carrillo, the comman-
dante at the presidio, was present, as were also a
number of neophytes from Santa Barbara and
La Purisima. Some of these were transferred
to the new mission.

The earthquake of December, 1812, shook
down a portion of the church and destroyed a
number of the neophytes' houses. In 1815, the

erection of a new church was begun. It was
built of adobes lined with brick and was com-
pleted and dedicated July 4, 1817.

The Indian revolt of 1824, described in the
sketch of La Purisima, broke out first at this
mission. The neophytes took possession of the
church. Tlie mission guard defended them-
selves and the padre. A portion of the mission
buildings were burned. At the approach of
troops from Santa Barbara the Indians fled to
Purisima.

Stephen C. Foster, in one of his ' reminis-
cences, gives the following version of the fight,
which was told him by an old Californian :
"The Indians were destitute of firearms, but
their overv^'helming numbers and showers of
arrows they directed against the portholes had
quite demoralized the garrison, when the priest
appeared and took command (he had been a
soldier before he became a priest). It must
have been a singular scene. The burly friar,
with shaven crown and sandaled feet, clad in
the gray gown, girt with the cord of St. Francis,
wielding carnal weapons ; now encouraging the
little garrison ; now shouting defiance to the
swarming assailants."

"Ho father," cried a young Indian acolyte,
"is that the way to say mass?" "Yes, I am say-
ing mass, my son. Here (holding up his cart-
ridge box) is the chalice ; here (holding up his
carbine) is the crucifix, and here goes my
benediction to you," as he leveled his carbine
and laid the scoffer low. "A large force was
finally collected from the different towns, the
Indian converts were followed into the Tulare
valley and captured ; the ring-leaders were shot
and the others brought back to their missions."
The revolting Indians of Santa Inez and La
Purisima had been joined by hindas or deserters
from some of the other missions. The real
cause of the revolt is unknown.

Santa Inez attained its maximum population,
770, 1816. In 1834 its population was 334.
During its mission period, from 1804 to 1834,
757 Indian children were baptized and 519 died,
leaving only 238 or about thirty per cent to grow
up. This mission was not completely secularized
until 1836.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PRESIDIOS OF SAN DIEGO AND SANTA BARBARA.

SAN DIEGO.

THE Roman presidium and the Spanish
presidio were similar in form and pur-
pose. The prsesidium was a fort or
fortified square centrally located, where a gar-
rison was stationed to protect the "colonists and
keep in subjection the aborigines. From it
settlements radiated and around it usually in
course of time a city was built. The presidio
in Spanish colonization subserved the same pur-
pose and became the nucleus of a town or city.

In the mission colonization of California there
were four presidios founded, viz. : San Diego,
Monterey, San Francisco and Santa Barbara.
These furnished the mission guards for their in-
dividual districts and after the founding of the
pueblos of San Jose and Los Angeles supplied a
small pueblo guard. The first presidio founded
in California as well as the first mission was
located at San Diego.

Rivera y Moncada, who was commander of the
first land expedition for the colonization of Cali-
fornia, arrived at San Diego on the 14th of May.
The two vessels of the expedition, the San
Carlos and San Antonio, with their scurvy-
afHicted crews, had already arrived and had
established a hospital on shore.

Bancroft says : "The old camp or pest house
on the bay shore is probably within the limits
of what is now the city of San Diego, locally
known as New Town; but the day after his
arrival Rivera, so say the chroniclers, aUhough
according to the instructions of Galvez, Pages
was chief in command, selects a new site some
miles north, at what is now Old, or North San
Diego, at the foot of a hill on which are still to
be seen the remains of the old presidio. Here
camp is pitched and fortified, a corral for the
animals and a few rude huts are built, and hither
on the 17th are transported the sick and their
tents. The immediate purpose is that the camp
may be near the river which at this point flows
into the north end of the bay."

The Indians of San Diego were a thievish
and murderous lot of savages. Before the little
settlement was three months old, they made an
attack upon it in which they killed a Spanish
youth and wounded Padre \'iscaino, the black-
smith, a soldier and a Lower California Indian.

It became necessary to surround the mission
with a stockade to protect it from their depreda-
tions. In 1782 the presidial force besides the
commissioned officers "consisted of five cor-
porals and forty-six soldiers. Six men were
constantly on duty at each of the three missions
of the district, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano
and San Gabriel ; while four served at the pueblo
of Los Angeles, thus leaving a sergeant, two
corporals and about twenty-five men to garrison
the fort, care for the horses and a small herd of
cattle, and to carry the mails, which latter duty
was the hardest connected with the presidio
serv'ice in time of peace. There were a car-
penter and blacksmith constantly employed,
besides a few ser\^ants, mostly natives. The
population of the district in 1790, not including
Indians, was 220."*

It was a monotonous existence the soldiers
and their families led at the presidio. Most
if not all resided inside the presidial square,
which now had an adobe wall around it instead
of palisades. Once a month the soldier couriers
brought up from Loreta a budget of mail made
up of official bandos and a few letters that con-
tained all the items of news that came from
their home land, Mexico. The mission was two
leagues up the river and there most of the
Indians were congregated. The padres had lit-
tle use for the soldiers except when the natives
rebelled, but in the closing years of the century
the fierce Dieguhos had become subjugated to
mission rules. Once a year the mission ship
landed the year's supplies at the embarcadero
down the bay and this was about the only ripple
of excitement that broke the weary monotony
of their lives.

In the first years of the nineteenth century,
the Yankee fur trading vessels discovered the
port of San Diego and occasionally broke the
monotony of the soldiers' lives, "^^nfcy came
to trade for sea otter skins, the most valued
peltry of the coast. There was a heavy export
duty on these, and to avoid this the captains
resorted to any expedient that promised success.
The people were not averse to illicit trading if

•■Bancroft, Vol.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

they could get a better price for their furs.

In March, 1803. the Lelia Byrd, a Yankee
fur-trading vessel, put into San Diego bay,
ostensibly to secure supplies but really to trade
for otter skins. The commander of the presidio
had about a thousand skins, part of which he
had secured by confiscation from Captain John
Brown of the ship Alexander. Shaler, cap-
tain of the Byrd, tried to buy the skins from
the comandante but was unsuccessful. Then he
attempted to trade with the soldiers who had
a few. He was detected at this, and one boat-
load of his men sent out at night to secure the
skins was made prisoners. He sent an armed
force ashore and rescued his men and, getting
them aboard, hoisted sail and put to sea with
the guards that had been put aboard to hold the
ship. As he passed the fort at w-hat is now
Ballast Point the Spaniards fired a broadside at
the vessel. The captain returned the fire and
then placed the Spanish sergeant and his guard
in an exposed situation where their friends
would be pretty sure to hit them when they
fired. The sergeant frantically besought his
compatriots of the fort to cease firing, which
they did. The guards w-ere put ashore further
along, greatly to their relief.

During the long years of the Mexican Revo-
lution the old presidio fell into decay and the
old guns in the fort at Point Guijarros grew
rusty from disuse. This fort or battery had
been built in 1797 to defend the entrance to the
bay.

Only once during the long contest for Mex-
ican independence did war's wrinkled front
affright the soldiers of the fort, and that was
in 1818, when Bouchard, the privateer, from the
black hull of his piratical craft looked into the
bay to see whether there was anything to
plunder, but, seeing nothing, passed by without
entering. Comandante Ruiz was prepared for
him and awaited his attempt to enter with red
hot cannon balls to burn his ships. Little did
the soldiers of the old presidio know of the inter-
necine struggle in Mexico that was transform-
ing them from subjects of a monarchy to free
citizens of a republic. They knew that there
was trouble, but what it was about they were
ignorant, nor did their officers and the padres
who were loyalist attempt to enlighten them.

But there came a day when the flag of Spain,
that for fifty years had floated from the presidio
flagstaff, was lowered, never again to rise, and
in its stead was unfurled the tri-color of the
Mexican empire. A few months pass and that
goes down before the banner of the Republic.
His transfer of allegiance from monarchy to
republicanism brings no change for the better
in the soldier's condition. He is poorly paid,

poorly fed, and the old presidio with its cracked
adobe walls that have sheltered him so long is
fast crumbling to ruins.

Alexico, more liberal than Spain, lifted from
commerce some of the restrictions that had
oppressed it and trade began to seek California
ports. First came the hide droghers with their
department-store cargoes.

San Diego was well located to secure that
trade. Robinson in "Life in California" tells us
what the town looked like in 1829, when hides
and tallow were the only exports — and when it
was the capital of the two Californias : "After
dinner we called upon the General Don Jose
Maria de Echeandia, a tall gaunt personage, who
received us wdth true Spanish dignity and polite-
ness. His house was located in the center of
a large square of buildings occupied by his
officers, and so elevated as to overlook them all
and command a view of the sea. On the right
hand was a small Gothic chapel with its ceme-
tery and immediately in front, close to the prin-
cipal entrance, was a guardroom where the
soldiers were amusing themselves ; some seated
on the ground playing cards, and smoking, while
others were dancing to the music of the guitar;
the whole was surrounded by a high wall orig-
inally intended as a defence against the Indians.
At the gate stood a sentinel, with slouched hat
and blanket thrown over one shoulder, his old
Spanish musket resting on the other ; his panta-
loons were buttoned and ornamented at the
knee, below which his legs were protected by
leggins of dressed deer skin, secured with
spangled garters.

"On the lawn beneath the hill on which the
presidio is built stood about thirty houses of
rude appearance, mostly occupied by retired vet-
erans, not so well constructed in respect either
to beauty or stability as the houses at Monterey,
with the exception of that belonging to our
Administrator, Don Juan Bandini, whose man-
sion, then in an unfinished state, bade fair, when
completed, to surpass any other in the country."

A few months later, Robinson on his return
to San Diego attended a house warming at Don
Juan Bandini's. "Senor Don Juan Bandini had
his house hcndccida or blessed during our stay
here, and Gale and myself were invited to attend.
The ceremony took place at noon, when the
chaplain proceeded through the different apart-
ments, sprinkling holy water on the walls and
uttering verses in Latin. This concluded, w-e
sat down to an excellent dinner consisting of all
the luxuries the place afforded provided in Don
Juan's best style." After dinner came a dance
"and in the evening a fandango. Such was San
Diego in 1829.

Seven years pass and then another employe

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

nf the "hide droghers" — R. H. Dana — draws this
picture of the old presidio and the town as he
saw them in 1836: "The first place we went to
was the old ruinous presidio, which stands on
a rising ground near the village which it over-
looks. It is built in the form of an open square,
like all the other presidios, and was in a most
ruinous state, with the exception of one side,
in which the commandant lived with his family.
There were only two guns, one of which was
spiked and the other had no carriage. Twelve
half clothed and half starved looking fellows
composed the garrison ; and they, it was said,
had not a musket apiece. The small settlement
lay directly below the fort composed of about
forty dark brown looking huts or houses and
three or four larger ones whitewashed, which
belonged to the "gente de razon."

One more picture and the last : The old
presidio is in ruins. The ragged soldiers are
gone. The cannon spiked and unspiked have
disappeared. The hide droghers are only a
memory. Another nation controls the destinies
of California, but through the changing years
San Diego remains unchanged. "Twenty-four
years after" (1859) Dana revisited the town and
thus describes it : "The little town of San Diego
has undergone no change whatever that I can
see. It certainly has not grown. It is still like
Santa Barbara, a Mexican town. The four prin-
cipal houses of the gente de razon — of the Ban-
dinis, Estudillos, Argiiellos, and Picos — are the
chief houses now; but all the gentlemen — and
their families, too, I believe — are gone. The
big, vulgar shop keeper and trader Fitch is long
since dead ; Tom Wrightington, who kept the
rival pulperia, fell from his horse when drunk
and was found nearly eaten up by coyotes ; and
I can scarce find a person whom I remember."

SANTA BARBARA.

Cabrillo, in 1542, found a large Indian popu-
lation inhabiting the main land of the Santa
Barbara Channel. Two hundred and twenty-
seven years later, when Portola made his ex-
ploration, apparently there had been no decrease
in the number of inhabitants. No portion of the
coast ofifered a better field for missionary labor
and Father Serra was anxious to enter it. In
accordance with Governor Felipe de Neve's
report of 1777, it had been decided to found
three missions and a presidio on the channel.
Various causes had delayed the founding and it
was not until April 17, 1782, that Governor do
Xevc arrived at the point where he had decided
to locate the presidio of Santa Barbara. Tiic
troops that were to man the fort reached San
Gabriel in the fall of 1781. It was thouglit best
for them In remain there tmtil the rainy season

was over. March 26, 1782, the Governor and
Father Serra, accompanied by the largest body
of troops that had ever before been collected in
California, set out to found the mission of San
Buenaventura and the presidio. The Gover-
nor, as has been stated in a former chapter, was
recalled to San Gabriel. The mission was
founded and the Governor having rejoined the
cavalcade a few weeks later proceeded to find a
location for the presidio.

"On reaching a point nine leagues from San
Buenaventura, the Governor called a halt and
in company with Father Serra at once proceeded
to select a site for the presidio. The choice
resulted in the adoption of the square now
formed by city blocks 139, 140, 155 and 156, and
bounded in common by the following streets:
Figueroa, Cafion Perdido, Garden and Anacapa.
A large community of Indians were residing
there, but orders were given to leave them un-
disturbed. The soldiers were at once directed
to hew timbers and gather brush to erect tem-
porary barracks, which when completed were
also used as a chapel. A large wooden cross
was made that it might be planted in the center
of the square and possession of the country was
taken in the name of the cross — the emblem of
Christianity.

"April 21, 1782, the soldiers formed a square
and with edifying solemnity raised the cross and
secured it in the earth. Father Serra blessed
and consecrated the district and preached a ser-
mon. The royal standard of Spain was un-
furled."*

An inclosure, sixty varas square, was made of
palisades. The Indians were friendly and
through their Chief Yanoalit, who controlled
thirteen rancherias, details of them were secured
to assist the soldiers in the work of building. The
natives were paid in food and clothing for their
labor.

Irrigation works were constructed consisting
of a large reservoir made of stone and cement,
with a zanja for conducting water to the
presidio. The soldiers, who had families, culti-
vated small gardens, which aided in their sup-
port. Lieutenant Ortega was in command of
the presidio for two years after its founding. He
was succeeded by Lieutenant Felipe de Goy-
coechea. After the founding of the mission, in
1786, a bitter feud broke out between the padres
and the comandante of the presidio. Goy-
coechea claimed the right to employ the Indians
in the building of the presidio, as he had done
l)efore the coming of the friars. This they
denied. After an acrimonious controversy the
dispute was finally compromised by dividing the

*Father Gabelleria's Hi

>f Santa Barbara.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Indians into two bands — a mission band and a
presidio band.

Gradually the palisades were replaced by an
adobe wall twelve feet high. It had a stone
foundation and was strongly built. The plaza or
inclosed square was 330 feet on each side. On
two sides of this inclosure were ranged the
family houses of the soldiers, averaging in size
15x25 feet. On one side stood the officers'
quarters and the church. On the remaining side
were the main entrance four varas wide, the store
rooms, soldiers' quarters and guard room ; and
adjoining these outside the walls were the cor-
rals for cattle and horses. A force of from fifty
to sixty soldiers was kept at the post. There
were bastions at two of the corners for cannon.

The presidio was completed about 1790, with
the exception of the chapel, which was not fin-
ished until 1797. Many of the soldiers when
they had served out their time desired to remain
in the country. These were given permission
to build houses outside the walls of the presidio
and in course of time a village grew up around
it.

At the close of the century the population of
the gente de razon of the district numbered 370.
The presidio when completed was the best in
California. Vancouver, the English navigator,
who visited it in November, 1793, says of it:
"Tiie buildings appeared to be regular and well
constructed, the walls clean and white and the
roofs of the houses were covered with a bright
red tile. The presidio excels all the others in
neatness, cleanliness and other smaller though
essential comforts ; it is placed on an elevated
part of the plain and is raised some feet from the
ground by a basement story which adds much
to its pleasantness."

During the Spanish regime the settlement at
the presidio grew in the leisurely way that all
Spanish towns grew in Californa. There was
but little immigration from Mexico and about
the only source of increase was from invalid sol-
diers and the children of the soldiers growing
up to manhood and womanhood.

Foreigners were not allowed to remain in the
country. In 1795, an English merchant ship,
the "Phoenix," touched at Santa Barbara for
supplies and left a Boston boy who wanted to
remain, "become a Christian" and grow up with
the country. This Boston boy's name was
Joseph O'Cain and he is described as "an. En-
glishman, a native of Ireland, whose parents now
reside in Boston." Whether O'Cain "became a
Christian" the records do not state, but he did
not become a citizen of California. A few
months after his arrival they shipped him to San
Bias.

The presidio furnished guards for the mis-

sions in its district, namely : San Gabriel, San
Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara,
La Purisima and Santa Inez ; and also the pueblo
guard of Los Angeles. Lieutenant Jose de la
Guerra y Noriega took command of it in 181 5.
In 1818 he was promoted to be captain and for
twenty-four years was the comandante of the
district. During his administration, April, 1822,
the oath of allegiance to the imperial regency,
Augustin I., emperor of Mexico, was taken by
the officers, soldiers and citizens and the rule of
Spain was at an end. Next year they swore
allegiance to the Republic. Father Gabelleria in
his history says : "On receiving intelligence that
the cause of independence had triumphed, they
immediately took up the cry recognizing the
then Mexican government, and although they
were Spanish soldiers shouted with one accord,
'Abajo Esparia' (down with Spain)."

It was at this time that direct trade was
opened up between Boston and California and
the "hide droghers" that afterward became such
a prominent feature in California commerce
came to the coast. To William A. Gale, who in
the early years of the century had been a fur
trader on the coast, belongs the credit of inaugu-
rating this trade. With him, in 1829, in the ship
"Brookline," came Alfred Robinson, whose
"Life in California" gives us the best descrip-
tion of manners, usages and customs in Califor-
nia during the early years of the last century.
Robinson, who visited Santa Barbara in 1829,
thus describes it :

"Seen from the ship the 'presidio' or town,
its charming vicinity, and neat little mission in
the background, all situated on an inclined plane,
rising gradually from the sea to a range of ver-
dant hills, three miles from the beach, have a
striking and beautiful effect. Distance, however,
in this case, 'lends enchantment to the view'
which a nearer approach somewhat dispels ; for
we found the houses of the town, of which there
were some two hundred, in not very good con-
dition. They are built in the Spanish mode,
with adobe walls, and roofs of tile, and are scat-
tered about outside of the military department :
showing a total disregard of order on the part
of the authorities. On the left of the town in
an elevated position stands the Castillo or fort-
ress. * * * The most stately house in the
place at this time was that of the diputado to
Mexico, Don Jose de la Guerra y Noriega."

Dana, in "Two Years Before the Mast," de-
scribes the town as it was in 1836: "The town
is composed of one-story houses, built of sun-
baked clay, or adobe, .some of them white-
washed, with red tiles on the roofs. I should
judge that there were about a hundred of them ;
and in the midst of them stands the Presidio,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD,

or fort, built of the same material, and apparently
but little stronger. The town is finely situated
with a bay in front and an amphitheater of hills
behind. The only thing which diminishes its
beauty is, that the hills have no large trees upon
them, they having been all burnt by a great fire
which swept them off about a dozen years ago,
and they had not yet grown again. The fire
was described to me by an inhabitant as having
been a very terrible and magnificent sight. The
air of the whole valley was so heated that the
people were obliged to leave the town and take
up their quarters for several days on the beach."

Farnham, who visited the town in 1840, gives
this description of it in his "Early Days of Cali-
fornia :" "The houses are chiefly built in the
Spanish mode — adobe walls and roofs of tile.
These tiles are made of clay fashioned into half
cylinders, and burned like brick. In using them,
the first layer is placed hollow side up ; the sec-
ond inversely, so as to lock over the first. Their
ends overlap each other as common shingles do.
This roofing serves very well in dry weather.
But when the southeasters of the winter season
come on, it affords a poor shelter. Very few of
the houses have glass windows. Open spaces in
the walls protected with bars of wood and plank
shutters, serve instead. A. B. Thompson, a
wealthy and hospitable American merchant, has
erected a residence in the center of the town,
which bears very striking testimony to his being
a civilized man."

Fremont's battalion took possession of Santa
Barbara, December 27, 1846. Next day the
United States flag was raised on the flag stafT
in the plaza, from which had floated the banner

of Spain, the imperial standard of the empire
and the cactus-perched eagle flag of the Republic
of Mexico.

Lieut. Bryant, of Fremont's battalion, de-
scribes the town as it appeared at the time of
the American conquest : "The town of Santa
Barbara is beautifully situated for the pictur-
esque, about one mile from the shore of a road-
stead, which affords anchorage for vessels of
any size, and a landing for boats in calm weather.
The population of the town, I should judge from
the number of houses to be about 1,200 souls.
Most of the houses are constructed of adobes,
in the usual architectural style of Mexican build-
ings. Some of them, however, are more Ameri-
canized, and have some pretentions to tasteful
architecture, and comfortable and convenient in-
terior arrangement.

For intelligence, refinement and civilization
the population, it is said, will compare advan-
tageously with any in California. Some old and
influential Spanish families are residents of this
place ; but their casas, with the exception of that
of Sehor Don Jose Noriega, the largest house
in the place, are now closed and deserted. It is
a peculiarity of the Mexicans that they allow no
shade or ornamental trees to grow near their
houses. In none of the streets of the towns or
missions through which I have passed has there
been a solitary tree standing. I noticed very
few horticultural attempts in Santa Barbara."

In 1834, the diputacion granted the pueblo a
regular ayuntamiento, but what the municipal
council did, no one knows. The records have
been lost. The legislature of 1849-50 incorpor-
ated the City of Santa Barbara, April 9, 1850.

CHAPTER Vll.

FOUNDING OF THE PUEBLO DE LOS ANGELES.

THE history of the founding of our Ameri-
can cities shows that the location of a city,
as well as its plan, is as often the result of
accident as of design. Neither chance nor acci-
dent entered into the selection of the site, the
plan or the name of Los Angeles. All these had
been determined upon years before a colonist
had been enlisted to make the settlement. The
.Spanish colonist, unlike the American back-
woodsman, was not free to locate on the public
<lomain wherever his caprice or his convenience
dictated.

The Spanish poblador (founder or colonist)
went where he was sent by his government. He
built his pueblo after a plan designated by royal

reglamento. His planting and his sowing, the
size of his fields and the shape of his house lot
were fixed by royal decree. He was a dependent
of the crown. The land he cultivated was not
his own, except to use. If he failed to till it, it
was taken from him and he was deported from
the colony. He could not buy the land he lived on
nor could he even exercise that privilege so dear
to the ./Knglo-Californian — the right to mortgage
it. Once located by royal order he could not
change his location without permission nor could
he visit his native land without a passport. He
could not change his political opinions — that is
if he had any to change. He could not change
his religion and survive the operation. Envi-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD,

roned and circumscribed by limitations and re-
strictions on all sides, it is not strange that the
Spanish colonists were non-progressive.

The pueblo plan of colonization so common
in Spanish-American countries did not originate
with the Spanish-American colonists. It was
older even than Spain itself. In early Euro-
pean colonization, the pueblo plan, the common
square in the center of the town, the house lots
grouped round it, the arable fields and the com-
mon pasture lands beyond, appears in the Aryan
village, in the ancient German mark and in the
old Roman prsesidium. The Puritans adopted
this form in their first settlements in New Eng-
land. Around the public square or common
where stood the meeting house and the town
house, they laid off their home lots and beyond
these were their cultivated fields and their com-
mon pasture lands. This form of colonization
was a combination of communal interests and
individual ownership. Primarily, no doubt, it
was adopted for protection against the hostile
aborigines of the country, and secondly for social
advantage. It reversed the order of our own
western colonization. The town came first, it
was the initial point from which the settlement
radiated ; while with our western pioneers the
town was an afterthought — a center point for the
convenience of trade.

When it had been decided to send colonists to
colonize California the settlements naturally took
the pueblo form. The difificulty of obtaining
regular supplies for the presidios from Mexico,
added to the great expense of shipping such a
long distance, was the principal cause that influ-
enced the government to establish pueblos de
gente de razon. The presidios received their
shipments of grain for breadstuff from San Bias
by sailing vessels. The arrival of these was un-
certain. Once when the vessels were unusually
long in coming, the padres and the soldiers at the
presidios and missions were reduced to living on
milk, bear meat and what provisions they could
obtain from the Indians. When Felipe de Neve
was made governor of Alta or Nueva California
in 1776, he was instructed by the viceroy to make
observations on the agricultural possibilities of
the country and the feasibility of founding pueb-
los where grain could be produced to supply
the military establishments.

On his journey from San Diego to San Fran-
cisco in 1777, he carefully examined the country ;
and as a result of his observations recommended
the founding of two pueblos : one on the Rio de
Porciuncula in the south, and the other on the
Rio de Guadalupe in the north. On the 29th
day of November, 1777, the Pueblo of San Jose
de Guadalupe was founded. The colonists were
nine of the presidio soldiers from San Francisco

and Monterey, who had some knowledge of
farming, and five of Anza's pobladores, who had
come with his expedition the previous year to
found the presidio of San Francisco. From the
fact that the founders, in part, of the first pueblo
in California were soldiers has originated the fic-
tion that the founders of the second pueblo, Los
Angeles, were soldiers also ; although this fiction
has been contradicted repeatedly, it reappears in
nearly every newspaper write-up of the early his-
tory of Los Angeles.

From various causes the founding of the sec-
ond pueblo had been delayed. In the latter part
of 1779, active preparations were begun for car-
rying out the plan of founding a presidio and
three missions on the Santa Barbara Channel
and a pueblo on the Rio Porciuncula to be
named "Reyna de Los Angeles." The Coman-
dante-General of the Four Interior Provinces of
the West (which embraced the Cahfornias, So-
nora. New Mexico and Viscaya), Don Teodoro
de Croix or "El Cavallero de Croix," "The
Knight of the Cross," as he usually styled him-
self, gave instructions to Don Fernando de Ri-
vera y Moncada to recruit soldiers and settlers
for the proposed presidio and pueblo in Nueva
California. He, Rivera, crossed the Gulf and
began recruiting in Sonora and Sinaloa. His
instructions were to secure twenty-four settlers,
who were heads of families. They must be ro-
bust and well behaved, so that they might set a
good example to the natives. Their families
must accompany them and unmarried female rel-
atives must be encouraged to go, with the view
of marrying them to bachelor soldiers.

According to the Regulations drafted by Gov.
Felipe deNeve June 1,1779, fo'' the Government
of the Province of California and approved by
the King, in a royal order of the 24th of Octo-
ber, 1781, settlers in California from the older
provinces were each to be granted a liouse lot
and a tract of land for cultivation. Each pobla-
dor in addition was to receive $116.50 a year for
the first two years, "the rations to be understood
as comprehended in this amount, and in lieu of
rations for the next three years they will receive
sixty dollars yearly."

Section 3 of Title 14 of the Reglamento pro-
vided that "To each poblador and to the com-
munity of the Pueblo there shall be given under
condition of repayment in horses and mules fit
to be given and received, and in the payment of
the other large and small cattle at the just prices,
which are to be fixed by tariff, and of the tools
and implements at cost, as it is ordained, two
mares, two cows and one calf, two sheep and two
goats, all breeding animals, and one yoke of
oxen or steers, one plow point, one hoe, one
spade, one axe, one sickle, one wood knife, one

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

musket and one leather shield, Iwo horses and
one cargo mule. To the community there shall
likewise be given the males corresponding to
the total number of cattle of different kinds dis-
tributed amongst all the inhabitants, one forge
and anvil, six crowbars, six iron spades or shov-
els and the necessary tools for carpenter and cast
work." For the government's assistance to the
pobladors in starting their colony the settlers
were required to sell to the presidios the surplus
products of their lands and herds at fair prices,
which were to be fixed by the government.

The terms offered to the settler were certainly
liberal, and by our own hardy pioneers, who in
the closing years of the last century were making
their way over the Alleghany mountains into
Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, they would have
been considered munificent ; but to the indolent
and energyless mixed breeds of Sonora and
.'-iinaloa they were no inducement. After spend-
ing nearly nine months in recruiting, Rivera was
able to obtain only fourteen pobladores, but little
over half the number required, and two of these
deserted before reaching California. The soldiers
that Rivera had recruited for California, forty-
two in number, with their families, were ordered
to proceed overland from Alamos, in Sonora, by
way of Tucson and the Colorado River to San
Gabriel Mission. These were commanded by
Rivera in person.

Leaving Alamos in April, 1781, thev arrived
in the latter part of June at the junction of the
Gila and Colorado rivers. After a short delay
to rest the main company was sent on to San
Gabriel Mission. Rivera, with ten or twelve
soldiers, remained to recruit his live stock before
crossing the desert. Two missions had been
established on the California side of the Colo-
rado the previous year. Before the arrival of
Rivera the Indians had been behaving badly.
Rivera's large herd of cattle and horses de-
stroyed the mesquite trees and intruded upon
the Indians' melon patches. This, with their
previous quarrel with the padres, provoked the
savages to an uprising. They, on July 17, at-
tacked the two missions, massacred the padres
and the Spanish settlers attached to the missions
and killed Rivera and his soldiers — forty-six
persons in all. The Indians burned the mis-
sion buildings. These w^ere never rebuilt nor
was there any other attempt made to convert
the Vumas. The hostility of the Yumas prac-
tically closed the Colorado route to California
for many years.

The pobladores who had been recruited for
the founding of the new pueblo, with their fam-
ilies and a military escort, all under the com-
mand of Lieutenant Jose Zuiiiga, crossed the
gulf from Guaymas to Loreto, in Lower Califor-

nia, and by the i6th of May were ready for their
long journey northward. In the meantime two
of the recruits had deserted and one was left
behind at Loreto. On the i8th of August the
eleven who had remained faithful to their con-
tract, with their families, arrived at San Gabriel.
( )n account of smallpox among some of the
children the company was placed in quaran-
tine about a league from the mission.

On the 26th of August, 1781, from San Ga-
briel, Governor de Neve issued his instructions
for the founding of Los Angeles, which gave
some additional rules in regard to the distribu-
tion of lots not found in the royal reglamento
previously mentioned.

On the 4th of September. 1781, the colonists,
with a military escort headed by Governor Felipe
de Neve, took up their line of march from the
INIission San Gabriel to the site selected for their
pueblo on the Rio de Porciuncula. There, with
religious ceremonies, the Pueblo de Nuestra
Sefiora La Reina de Los Angeles was formally
founded. A mass was said by a priest from the
Mission San Gabriel, assisted by the choristers
and musicians of that mission. There were
salvos of musketry and a procession with a
cross, candlesticks, etc. At the head of the pro-
cession the soldiers bore the standard of Spain
and the women followed bearing a banner with
the image of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels.
This procession made a circuit of the plaza, the
priest blessing it and the building lots. At the
close of the services Governor de Neve made an
address full of good advice to the colonists.
Then the Governor, his military escort and the
priests returned to San Gabriel and the colo-
nists were left to work out their destiny.

Few of the great cities of the land have had
such humble founders as Los Angeles. Of the
eleven pobladores who built their huts of poles
and tule thatch around the plaza vieja one hun-
dred and twenty years ago, not one could read
or WTite. Not one could boast of an unmixed
ancestry. They were mongrels in race — Cauca-
sian, Indian and Negro mixed. Poor in purse,
poor in blood, poor in all the sterner qualities of
character that our own hardy pioneers of the
west possessed, they left no impress on the city
they founded ; and the conquering race that pos-
sesses the land they colonized has forgotten
them. No street or landmark in the city bears
the name of any one of them. No monument
or tablet marks the spot where they planted the
germ of their settlement. No Forefathers' day
preserves the memory of their services and sac-
rifices. Their names, race and the number of
persons in each family have been preserved in
the archives of California. They are as follows :

I. Jose de Lara, a Spaniard (or reputed to

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

be one, although it is doubtful whether he was of
pure blood) ; had an Indian wife and three chil-
dren.

2. Jose Antonio Navarro, a Mestizo, forty-
two years old; wife a mulattress ; three children.

3. Basilio Rosas, an Indian, sixty-eight years
old ; had a mulatto wife and two children.

5. Antonio Felix \'illavicencio, a Spaniard,
thirty rears old; had an Indian wife and one
child.

6. Jose \'anegas, an Indian, twenty-eight
years old; had an Indian wife and one child.

7. Alejandro Rosas, an Indian, nineteen
years old and had an Indian wife. (In the rec-
ords, "wife Co_\-ote-Indian.")*

8. Pablo Rodriguez, an Indian, twenty-five
years old ; had an Indian wife and one child.

9. Manuel Camero, a mulatto, thirty years
old ; had a mulatto wife.

10. Luis Ouintero, a negro, fifty-five years
old, and had a mulatto wife and five children.

11. Jose Morena, a mulatto, twenty-two
years old, and had a mulatto wife.

Antonio Miranda, the twelfth person de-
scribed in the padron (list) as a Chino, fifty
years old, and having one child, was left at
Loreto when the expedition marched northward.
It would have been impossible for him to have
rejoined the colonists before the founding. Pre-
sumably his child remained with him, conse-
quently there were but forty-four instead of
"forty-six persons in all." Col. J. J. Warner, in
his "Historical Sketch of Los Angeles," orig-
inated the fiction that one of the founders (Mi-
randa, the Chino) was born in China. Chino,
while it does mean a Chinaman, is also applied
in Spanish-American countries to persons or
animals having curly hair. Miranda was prob-
bably of mixed Spanish and Negro blood, and
curly haired. There is no record to show that
.Miranda ever came to Alta California.

Another fiction that frequently appears in
newspaper "write-ups" of Los Angeles is the
statement that the founders were "discharged
soldiers from the Mission San Gabriel." None
of them had ever seen San Gabriel before they
arrived there with Zuniga's expedition on the
18th of August, 1781, nor is there a probability
that any one of them ever was a soldier. When
Jose de Galvcz was fitting out the expedition
for occupying San Diego and Monterey, he is-
sued a proclamation naming St. Joseph as the
patron saint of his California colonization
scheme. Bearing this fact in mind, no doubt.
Governor de Neve, when he founded San Jose,
named St. Joseph its patron .saint. Having

*Tlio lerni coyote was appl
tivfs of Lower California.

named one of the two pueblos for San Jose it
naturally followed that the other should be
named for Santa Maria, the Queen of the An-
gels, wife of San Jose.

On the 1st of August, 1769, Portola's expedi-
tion, on its journey northward in search of Mon-
terey Bay, had halted in the San Gabriel Valley
near where the IMission \ieja was afterwards
located, to reconnoiter the country and "above
all," as Father Crespi observes, "for the purpose
of celebrating the jubilee of Our Lady of the
Angels of Porciuncula." Next day, August 2,
after traveling about three leagues (nine miles).
Father Crespi, in his diary, says: "We came to
a rather wide Canada having a great many Cot-
tonwood and alder trees. Through it ran a beau-
tiful river toward the north-northeast and curv-
ing around the point of a cliff it takes a direc-
tion to the south. Toward the north-northeast
we saw another river bed which must have been
a great overflow, but we found it dry. This arm
unites with the river and its great floods during
the rainy season are clearly demonstrated by
the many uprooted trees scattered along the
banks." (This dry river is the Arroyo Seco.)
"We stopped not very far from the river, to
which we gave the name of Porciuncula." Por-
ciuncula is the name of a hamlet in Italy near
which was located the little church of Our Lady
of the Angels, in which St. Francis of Assisi
was praying when the jubilee was granted him.
Leather Crespi, speaking of the plain through
which the river flows says : "This is the best
locality of all those we have yet seen for a mis-
sion, besides having all the resources required
for a large town." Padre Crespi was evidently
somewhat of a prophet.

The fact that this locality had for a number of
years borne the name of "Our Lady of the An-
gels of Porciuncula" may have influenced Gov-
ernor de Neve to locate his pueblo here. The
full name of the town. El Pueblo de Nuestra
Senora La Reina de Los Angeles, was seldom
used. It was too long for everyday use. In the
earlier years of the town's history it seems to
have had a variety of names. It appears in the
records as Fl Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de Los
Angeles, as El Pueblo de La Reina de Los An-
geles and as El Pueblo de Santa Maria de Los
Angeles. Sometimes it was abbreviated to
Santa Maria, but it w-as most commonly spoken
of as El Pueblo — the town. At what time the
name of Rio Porciuncula was changed to Rio
Los Angeles is uncertain. The change no doubt
was gradual.

The site selected for the pueblo of Los An-
geles was picturesque and romantic. From
where Alameda street now is to the eastern
bank of the river the land was covered with a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

dense growth of willows, cottonwoods and al-
ders ; while here and there, rising above the
swampy copse, towered a giant aliso (sycamore).
A\'ild grape vines festooned the branches of the
trees and wild roses bloomed in profusion. Be-
hind the narrow shelf of mesa land where the
pueblo was located rose the brown hills, and in
the distance towered the lofty Sierra Madre
mountains.

Forages the Indians had roamed up and down
the valley, hut the Indian is so ardent a lover of
nature that he never defaces her face by attempt-
ing to make improvements — particularly if it re-
quires exertion to make the changes. For cen-
turies within the limits that Neve had marked
out for his pueblo had stood the Indian village
of Yang-na or rather a succession of villages of
that name. When the accretions of filth en-
croached upon the red man's dwelling and the
increase of certain kinds of live stock, of name

offensive to ears polite, had become so great and
their appetites so keen that even the phlegmatic
Digger could no longer endure their aggressive
attacks, then the poor Indian resorted to a he-
roic method of house-cleaning. ( )n an appointed
day the portable property was removed from the
wickeups, the village was set on fire and myriads
on myriads of piojos and piilgas were cremated
in the conflagration. Alter purification by fire
poor Lo built a new village on the old site — a
new town with the same old name, Yang-na.
Probably all of the Indians of Yang-na had been
gathered into the mission fold at San Gabriel
iDefore Neve's pobladores built their huts on the
banks of the Rio Porciuncula, still there seems
to have been fears of an attack by hostile In-
dians, for the colonists built a guard house and
barracks and a guard of soldiers was stationed
at the pueblo for many years after the found-
ing.

CHAPTER Vlll.

LOS ANGELES IN THE SPANISH ERA.

IN THE previous chapter we had a description
of the founding of the pueblo and the dedi-
cation of the house lots and the plaza. The
plaza is an essential feature in the plan of
Spanish-America towns. It is usually the geo-
graphical center of the pueblo lands. The old
plaza of El Pueblo de Nuestra Seiiora La Reina
de Los Angeles, as designated by Gov. Felipe de
Neve, in his "Instruccion para La I-'undaccion
de Los Angeles," was a parallelogram one hun-
dred varas in length by seventy-five in breadth.
It was laid out w-ith its corners facing the cardi-
nal points of the compass, and with three streets
running perpendicularly to each of its four sides,
so that no street would be swept by the winds.
The Governor evidently supposed that the winds
would always blow from the orthodox four cor-
ners of the earth ; therefore, he cut out his town
on the bias, so as to outwit old Boreas.

The usual area of a pueblo in California was
four square leagues, or about 17,770 acres (a
Spanish square league contains 4,4444-9 acres).
The pueblo lands were divided into solares, or
house lots, suertes* — planting fields, dehesas,
outside pasture lands ; ejidos, or commons, lands
nearest the town where the mustangs were teth-
ered and the goats roamed at pleasure (from the
ejidos, solares or house lots may be granted to

*Sucrto — cliancc or
icrtes because assigned

new comers) ; propios^ — public lands that may
be rented or leased, and the proceeds used to
defray municipal expenses ; realanges, or royal
lands, also used for raising revenue, and from
these lands grants were made to new settlers.
In addition there was also certain communal
property know?n as Bienes Concejiles, which
term has been defined as "that which, in respect
of ownership, belongs to the public or council of
a city, village or town, and in respect of its use
belongs to every one of its inhabitants, such as
fountains, woods, the pastures, waters of rivers
for irrigation, etc."

After the pobladores had built their rude huts
they turned their attention to the preparation of
their fields for cultivation. A toma, or dam, and
an irrigating ditch were constructed. This
ditch passed along the east side and close to
those lots on the southeastern corner of the
square. It not only supplied the settlers with
water for irrigating their fields, but also for
drinking and household purposes. It was the
first water system of Los Angeles. According
to Neve's "Instructions," the suertes, or plant-
ing fields, were to be located at least 200 varas
from the house lots that surrounded the square.
This instruction, if complied with, located the
western line of these fields about where Ala-
meda street now is.

The following description nf the colonists'
idanting fields is taken from the first Los .\n-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

geles directory, published in 1872 by A. J- King
and A. Waite :

"Thirty fields for cultivation were also laid
out. Twenty-six of these fields contained each
40,000 square varas (equal to about eight acres).
They were, with the exception of four (which
were 300 by 100 varas) 200 varas square, and
separated by lanes three varas wide. The fields
were located between the irrigating ditch and the
river, and mostly above a line running direct and
nearly east from the town site to the river. (The
fields covered ihe present site of Chinatown and
that of the lumber yards, and possibly extended
up to the San Fernando, or river station depot.)
The distance from the irrigating ditch to the
river across these fields was upwards of 1,200
varas. At that time the river ran along where
now (1872) stand the houses of Julian Chavez
and Elijah Moulton. It was evident that when
the town was laid out the bluff bank, which in
modern times extended from Aliso street up by
the Stearns (now Capitol) mill to the toma, did
not e.xist, but was made when the river ran near
the town."

The streets of the pueblo were each ten varas
(about twenty-eight feet) wide. The boundaries
of the Plaza Vieja, or old plaza, as nearly as it
is possible to locate them now, are as follows:
"The southeast corner of Tapper Main and Mar-
chessault streets for the southern or southeast-
ern corner of the square ; the east line of Upper
Main street from the above-named corner, 100
varas, in a northerly direction for the east line
of the square ; the eastern line of new High
street for the western line of the square ; and the
northern line of Marchessault street for the
southern line of the square."* LTpon three sides
of this parallelogram were the house lots, each
40x20 varas, except the two corner lots, which,
fronting in part on two sides of the square, were
L-shaped.

The eastern half of the southwestern side was
left vacant ; the western half of this side was de-
signed for the public buildings — a guard-house,
a town-house and a public granary.

While the house lots, the tilling-fields and a
certain part of the live stock belonged in sever-
alty to each head of a family, and to the care and
cultivation of which he was supposed to devote
his time and attention, there were also certain
comnuuiity interests of which each was re-
quired to perform his part, such as building the
guard-house, the public granaries and the irri-
gating works, standing guard and herding the
village flocks. It was discovered before long that
there were shirks among the colonists — men who
would not do their part of the conumuiity labor.

•J. J. WanuT's Hi.slorical sketch of Los .■\ngelcs Co.

Early in 1782, Jose de Lara, one of the two Span-
iards, Antonio Mesa and Luis Quintero, the two
negroes, were deported from the colony and
their property taken from them by order of the
Governor, they being "useless to the pueblo and
to themselves." As their families went with them,
by their deportation the population of the pueblo
was reduced to twenty-eight persons. The re-
maining colonists went to work. T'efore the
close of 1784 they had replaced most of their
tule-thatchcd and mud-daubed huts of poles with
adobe houses. They had built the public build-
ings required and had begun the erection of a
chapel. All of these were built of adobe and
covered with thatch.

In 1785 Jose Francisco Sinova, a laborer, who
for a number of years had lived in California,
applied for admission into the pueblo and was ad-
mitted on the same terms as the original pobla-
dores.

In 1786 Alferez (Lieut.) Jose Argiiello, who
had been detailed for that purpose by Governor
Fages, the successor of de Neve, put the nine
settlers who had been faithful to their trust in
legal possession of their house, lots and sowing
fields. Corporal A^icente Felix and Private Roque
de Cota acted as legal witnesses. Each colonist
in the presence of the others received a grant of
a house, lot and three sowing fields, and he was
given a branding-iron to distinguish his live
stock from that of his neighbors.

It is probable that there had from the begin-
ning been some understanding of what was the
individual property of each one. Each of the
nine settlers signed his grant or agreement with
a cross ; not one of them could write. Lieut.
Argiiello spent but little time over surveys, and
probably set up no landmarks to define bound-
aries. The propios were said to extend southerly
2,200 varas from the toma or dam (which was
located near the point where the Fiuena Vista
street bridge now crosses the river) to the limit
of the distributed lands. The realenges, or royal
lands, were located on the eastern side of the
river.

The e.xterior boundaries of the pueblo were
not fi.xcd then, nor were they ever defined while
the town was under the domination of Spain. .\s
we shall find later on, this occasioned controver-
sies between the missionaries of San Gabriel and
the settlers of Los Angeles.

The local government of the pueblo was a
combination of the military and the civil forms.
The civil authority was vested in an alcalde and
two regidores (councilman) ; the military in a
corporal of the guard. There was another office,
that of coniisionado, which was quasi-military.
The principal duty of this officer was to appor-
tion the pueblo lands to new settlers.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

The corporal of the pueblo guard seems to
have been the ranking officer in the town gov-
ernment, and, in addition to his military com-
mand, had supervision over the acts of the rcgi-
dores and the alcalde.

The civil authorities were at first appointed
bv the governor; later on they were elected by
the people. The territory of California was di-
vided into military districts, corresponding in
number to the presidios. Each military district
was under the command of a military officer
(captain or lieutenant), who reported to the gov-
ernor, who was also an army officer, usually a
lieutenant-colonel or colonel.

At the time of the founding of Los Angeles
there were three presidios, viz. : San Diego,
^Monterey and San Francisco. Los Angeles was
at first attached to San Diego. After the found-
ing of Santa Barbara presidio it was placed in
that military district.

The corporal of the pueblo guard reported to
the commander of his district, and the com-
mander to the comandante-general or governor.
Mcente Felix, who assisted Lieut. Argiiello in
the distribution of the pueblo lands to the set-
tlers in 1/86, was the first corporal of the pueblo
guard, which was furnished from the presidio
of San Diego, and consisted of four or five sol-
diers of the regular army. All the male in-
habitants of the pueblo over eighteen years were
subject to military service, both at home in keep-
ing order, and in the field in case of foreign in-
vasion or an Indian outbreak. The.'^c civilian
soldiers reported to the corporal of the guard for
duty. Each was required to provide himself with
a horse, a musket and a cuera or shield of bull
hide.

For fifty years after the founding of the pueblo
a guard was kept on duty at the cuartel or guard-
house that stood just above the church of Our
Lady of the Angels, on what is now the north-
west corner of Upper Main and Marchessault
streets; and nightly armed sentinels patroled the
town.

Los Angeles, like all pioneer settlements of
America, had her Indian question to settle.
There are no records of Indian massacres, but
Indian scares occurred occasionally. In 1785 we
find from the provincial records that 35 pounds
of powder and 800 bullets were sent to Los An-
geles as a reserve supply of ammunition for the
settlers in case of an attack. There was not
much danger from the valley Indians, who had
been tamed by mission training and subjugated
by the lash, but the mountain Indians were pred-
atory and ho.stile. At one time the Mojaves
made an incursion into the valley with the design
of sacking the mission and attacking Los .An-
geles. They penetrated within two leagues of

the mission, where they killed a neophyte, but,
hearing that there was a company of soldiers at
Los Angeles prepared to attack them, they fled
back to the mountains.

Between 1786 and 1790 the number of families
increased from 9 to 30. An estado, or census of
the pueblo, taken August 17, 1790, gives its
total population 141, divided as follows: Males,
75; females, 66; unmarried, 91; married, 44;
widowed, 6; under 7 years, 47; 7 to 16 years,
33; 16 to 29 years, 12; 29 to 40 years, 27; 40 to
90 years, 13; over 90 years, 9; Europeans, i;
Spanish (this probably means Spanish-Ameri-
cans), 72; Indians, 7; Mulattoes, 22; Mestizos,
39. The large percentage of the population over
90 years of age is rather remarkable. The mixed
races still constituted a large proportion of the
pueblo population. The increase of inhabitants
came largely from discharged soldiers of the
presidios.

It was the policy of the government to encour-
age marriages between the bachelor soldiers
and neophyte women, and thus increase the pop-
ulation of the territory without the expense of
importing colonists from Mexico. Spain evi-
dently looked more to the quantity of her colo-
nists than to the quality.

Of the social hfe of the pueblo we know but
little. The inhabitants were not noted for good
behavior ; they were turbulent and quarrelsome.
The mixture of races was not conducive of har-
monv and good citizenship.

Corporal Felix seems to have been moderately
successful in controlling the discordant elements.
The settlers complained of his severity, but the
governor sustained him, and he retained his posi-
tion to the close of the century. If padre Sala-
zar's opinions of the colonists of California were
correct, they were a hard lot ; but the padres
were opposed to all efforts at the colonization of
California by gente de razon, and the priest's
picture of pueblo life may be overdrawn. He
asserted that "the inhabitants of the pueblos
were idlers and paid more attention to gambling
and playing the guitar than to tilling their lands
and educating their children. The pagans did
most of the work, took a large part of the crop,
and were so well supplied thereby that they did
not care to be converted and live at tlTe mis-
sions. The friars attended to the spiritual needs
of the settlers free of charge, and their tithes did
California no good. Young men grew up with-
out restraint and wandered among the ranchcrias,
setting the Indians a bad example and indulging
in excesses that were sure sooner or later to
result in disaster."

Xotwithstanding Salazar's doleful picture of
the ])uel)los. that of Los Angeles had made fair
l)rogress. In 1790 the earlier settlers had all re-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

placed their huts of poles with adobe houses.
There were twenty-nine dwellings, a town hall,
barrack, cuartel and granaries built of adobe, and
around these was a wall of the same material.
Whether the wall was built as a defense against
hostile Indians or to prevent incursions of their
herds into the village does not appear. In 1790
their crop of grain amounted to 4,500 bushels,
and their cattle had increased to 3,000 head.
During the decade between 1790 and 1800 the
population increased from 141 to 315. The in-
crease came chiefly from the growing up of chil-
dren and from the discharged soldiers of the pre-
sidios. Horses and cattle increased from 3,000
to 12,500 head, and the production of grain
reached 7,800 bushels in 1796. In 1800 they
offered to enter into an agreement to supply
3,400 bushels of wheat per year, at $1.66 per
bushel, for the San Bias market. Taxes were low
and were payable in grain. Each settler was re-
quired to give annually two fanegas of maize
or wheat for a public fund to be expended for
the good of the community.

The decade between 1800 and 1810 was as de-
void of noteworthy events as the preceding one.
Life in the pueblo was a monotonous round of
commonplace occurrences. The inhabitants had
but little communication with the world be-
yond their own narrow limits. There was a mail
between Mexico and California but once a
month. As not more than half a dozen of the
inhabitants could read or write, the pueblo mail
added little weight to the budget of the soldiers'
correras (mail carriers).

The settlers tilled their little fields, herded
their cattle and sheep, and quarreled among
themselves. During the decade drunkenness and
other excesses were reported as alarmingly on
the increase, and, despite the efforts of the co-
misionado, the pobladores could not be con-
trolled. The jail and the stocks were usually
\w\\ filled. \'icente Felix was no longer com-
missioner. Javier Alvarado, a sergeant of the
army, was comisionado in 1809, and probably
had filled the office the preceding years of
the decade. Population increased slowly during
the decade. In 1810 there were 365 persons
in the pueblo; fifty had been recruited from the
town for niilitar)- service in the presidios. This
would make a total of 415, or an increase of
100 in ten years.

The decade between 1810 and 1820 was
marked by a greater increase in population than
the preceding one. In 1820 the population of
the pueblo, including the few ranches surround-
ing it which were under its jurisdiction, was 650.
The rule of Spain in Mexico was drawing to an
end. The revolutionary war begun by Hidalgo
at the pueblo of Dolores in 1810 was carried on

with varying success throughout this decade.
About all that was known of it in California was
that some disturbance in New Spain prevented
supplies being sent to the missions and the pre-
sidios. The officers and soldiers received no
pay. There was no money at the presidios to
buy the products of the pueblos, and there were
hard times all along the line. The common
people knew little or nothing of what was going
on in Mexico, and probably cared less. They
had no aspirations for independence and were
unfit for any better government than they had.
The friars were strong adherents of the Spanish
crown and bitterly opposed to a republican
form of government. If the revolution suc-
ceeded it would be the downfall of their power
in California.

The most exciting event of the decade was the
appearance on the coast of California, in Novem-
ber, 1818, of the "pirate Buchar," as he was com-
monly called by the Californians. Bouchard
was a Frenchman, in the service of the revolu-
tionists of Buenos Ayres, and carried letters of
marque, which authorized him to prey on Span-
ish commerce. Bouchard, with two ships, carry-
ing 66 guns and 350 men, attacked Monterey,
and after an obstinate resistance by the Cali-
fornians, it was captured and burned. He next
pillaged Ortega's ranch and burned the build-
ings ; then, sailing down the coast, he scared the
Santa Barbarans, looked into San Pedro Bay.
but finding nothing there to tempt him, he kept
on to San Juan Capistrano. Here he landed and
robbed the mission of a few articles and drank
the padres' wine ; then he sailed away and dis-
appeared from the coast. Los Angeles sent a
company of soldiers to Santa Barbara to fight
the insurgents. The Santa Barbara and Los An-
geles troops reached San Juan the day after Bou-
chard pillaged the mission. Los Angeles lost
nothing by the insurgents, but on the contrary
gained two citizens — Joseph Chapman, of Massa-
chusetts, and an American negro, named Fisher.
Joseph Chapman was the first English-speaking
resident of Los Angeles. He and Fisher were
captured at Monterey, and not at Ortega's ran-
cho, as stated by Stephen C. Foster. Chapman
married and located at the Alission San Gabriel,
where he became Padre Sanchez' man of all
work, and built the first mill in Southern Cali-
fornia.

The first year of the third decade of the cen-
tury witnessed the downfall of Spanish domina-
tion in Mexico. The patriot priest Hidalgo had.
on the 15th of September, i8io, struck the first
blow for' independence. For eleven years a frat-
ricidal war was waged — cruel, bloody and dev-
astating. Hidalgo, Allende. Mina, Morelos,
Aldama, Rayon, and other patriot leaders sacri-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ficed their lives for the liberty of their countr}-.
Under Iturbide, in September, 1821, the inde-
pendence of Mexico was finally achieved. It was
not until September, 1822, that the flag of Spain

was supplanted by that of Mexico in California,
although the oath of allegiance to the imperial
government of Mexico was taken in April by
Sola and others.

CHAPTER IX.

TRANSITION PERIOD— FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLIC.

PABLO VICENTE DE SOLA was gov-
ernor of Alta California when the transi-
tion came from the rule of Spain to that of
Mexico. He had received his appointment from
Viceroy Calleja in 1814. Calleja, the butcher of
Guanajuato, was the crudest and the most
bloodthirsty of the vice-regal governors of New
Spain during the Mexican revolution. Sola was
thoroughly in sympathy with the loyalists and
bitterly opposed to the revolutionary party of
Mexico. To his influence and that of the friars
was due the adherence of California to the cause
of Spain. Throughout the eleven years of inter-
necine war that deluged the soil of Mexico with
blood, the sympathies of the Californians were
not with those who were struggling for freedom.

Of the political upheavals that shook Spain in
the first decades of the century only the faintest
rumblings reached far-distant California. Not-
withstanding the many changes of rulers that
political revolutions and Napoleonic wars gave
the mother country, the people of California re-
mained loyal to the Spanish crown, although at
times they must have been in doubt who wore
the crown. The success of the revolutionary
movement in ^Mexico was no doubt bitterly dis-
appointing to Sola, but he gracefully submitted
to the inevitable.

For half a century the Spanish flag had floated
in California. It was lowered and in its place
was hoisted the imperial standard of the jNIexican
Empire. A few months pass and the fiag of the
empire is supplanted by the tricolor of the Re-
public of Mexico. Thus the Californians, in little
more than one year, have passed under three
different forms of government — that of a king-
dom, an empire and a republic, and Sola, from a
loyal Spanish governor, has been transformed
into a RIcxican republican.

The transition from one form of government
to another was not marked by any radical
changes. Under the empire a beginning was
made towards a representative government. Cal-
ifornia was given a "diputacion provincial" or
provincial legislature, composed of a president
and six vocales or members. This territorial
legislature met at Monterey November Q, 1822.
Los .'\ngeles, was rcjircscnted in it by Jose

Paloniares and Jose Antonio Carrillo. The
diputacion authorized the organization of
ayuntamientos or town councils for the pueblos
of Los Angeles and San Jose, and the election
of regidores or councilmen to office by the votes
of the people.

LTnder the empire, California also was entitled
to send a diputado or delegate ^o the imperial
cortes, to be selected by the people. Upon the
overthrow of his "Most Serene Majesty,
Augustin I. by Divine Providence and by the
Congress of the Nation, First Constitutional
Emperor of Mexico," and the downfall of his
short-lived empire, the republic of IMexico was
established and went into effect November 19,
1823, by the adoption of a constitution similar
to that of the LTnited States. The federation was
composed of nineteen states and four territories.
Alta California was one of the territories. The
territories were each allowed a diputado in the
JMexican congress. The governors of the terri-
tories were appointed by the president of the
republic. The a}untaniiento of Los Angeles,
which had been foriiied in November, 1822, un-
der the empire, was continued under the rcpul)-
lic, with the addition of a secretary and a sindico
(treasurer). The quasi-military office of comis-
ionado, which had existed almost from the
founding of the pueblo, was abolished, but the
old soldiers, who composed a considerable por-
tion of the town's population, did not take kindly
to this innovation. The niilitai\v coiiiandante
of the district, with the approval oi Governor
Argiiello, who had succeeded Sola, appointed
Sergeant Guillermo Cota to control the unruly
element of the pueblo, his authority bciiig similar
to that formerly e.Kercised by the comisionados.
Then there was a clash between the civil and mil-
itary authorities. The alcalde and the ayunta-
niiento refused to recognize Cota's authority.
Tliey had progressed so rapidly in republican
ideas that they denied the right of any military
officer to exercise his power over the free citi-
zens of Angeles. The town had a bad reputa-
tion in the territory. There was an unruly ele-
ment in it. The people generally had a poor
opinion of their riilers, both civil and military,
and tlic imiKt reciprocated in kind. The town hail

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

a large crop of aspiring politicians, and it was
noted for its production of wine and brandy.
The result of mixing these two was disorder,
dissensions and brawls. Rotation in office seems
to have been the rule. No one could hold the
office of alcalde two years in succession, nor
could he vote for himself. In 1826, Jose Antonio
Carrillo was elected alcalde, but nine citizens
jirotestcd that his election was illegal because
as an elector he had voted for himself and that
he could not hold the office twice within two
years. A new election was ordered. At another
election A"icente Sanchez reported to Governor
Echeandia that the election was void because
the candidates were "vagabonds, drunkards and
worse."

The population of the pueblo in 1822, when it
passed from under the domination of Spain, was
770. It was exclusively an agricultural com-
munity. The only manufacturing was the con-
verting of grapes into wine and brandy. The
tax on wine and brandy retailed in 1829, was
$339; and the fines collected were $158. These,
the liquor tax and the fines, constituted the prin-
cipal sources of municipal revenue.

The cattle owned by the citizens of the pueblo
in 1821 amounted to 10,000 head. There was a
great increase in live stock during the decade be-
tween 1820 and 1830. The increased demand
for liidcs and tallow stimulated the raising of
cattle. In 1830, the cattle of the pueblo had in-
creased to 42,000 head, horses and mules num-
liered 3,000 head and sheep 2,400. A few for-
eigners had settled in Los Angeles. The first
luiglish-speaking person to locate here was Jose
Chapman, captured at INIonterey when the town
was attacked and burned by Bouchard, as pre-
viously mentioned. He arrived at Los Angeles
in 1 81 8. Chapman was the only foreign-born
resident of the pueblo under Spanish rule. Mex-
ico, although jealous of foreigners, was not so
proscriptive in her policy toward them as Spain.
.\s oijportunity for trade opened up foreigners
began to locate in the town. Between 1822 and
1830 came Santiago McKinley, John Temple,
George Rice. J. D. Leandry, Jesse Ferguson,
Richard Laughlin, Nathaniel Pryor, Abel
Stearns, Louis Bouchette and Juan Domingo.
These adopted the customs of the country, mar-
ried and became permanent residents of the
town. Of these !\IcKinley, Temple, Stearns and
Rice were engaged in trade and kept stores.
Their principal business was the purchase of
liides for exchange with the hide droghers. The
hide droghers were vessels fitted out in Boston
and freighted with assorted cargoes to exchange
for hides and tallow. The embarcadero of San
Pedro became the principal entrepot of this
trade. It was the port of Los Angeles and of

the three missions, San Gabriel, San Fernando
and San Juan Capistrano.

Alfred Robinson in his "Life in California"
thus describes the methods of doing business at
San Pedro in 1829: "After the arrival of olu"
trading vessel our friends came in the morning
flocking on board from all quarters ; and soon a
busy scene commenced, afloat and ashore. Boats
were passing to the beach, and men, women and
children partaking in the general excitement.
On shore all was confusion, cattle and carts
laden with hides and tallow, gente de razon and
Indians busily employed in the delivery of their
produce and receiving in return its value in
goods. Groups of individuals seated around
little bonfires upon the ground, and horsemen
racing over the plains in every direction." "Thus
the day passed, some arriving, some departing —
till long after sunset, the low white road, leading
across the plains to the town, appeared a living
panorama." Next to a revolution there was no
other event that so stirred up the social ele-
ments of the old pueblo as the arrival of a hide
drogher at San Pedro. "On the arrival of a new
vessel from the United States," says Robinson,
"every man, woman, boy and girl took a pro-
portionate share of interest as to the qualities
of her cargo. If the first inquired for rice, sugar
or tobacco, the latter asked for prints, silks and
satins; and if the boy wanted a Wilson's jack-
knife the girl hoped that there might be some
satin ribbons for her. Thus the whole popula-
tion hailed with eagerness an arrival. Even the
Indian in his unsophisticated style asked for
Panas Colorodos and Abalaris — red handker-
chiefs and beads."

Robinson describes the pueblo as he saw it in
1829: "The town of Los Angeles consisted at
this time of about twenty or thirty houses scat-
tered about withdut any regularity or any
particular attraction, excepting the numbers of
vineyards located along the lowlands on the
borders of the Los Angeles River. There were
but two foreigners in the town at that time, na-
tives of New England, namely : George Rice
and John Temple, who were engaged in mer-
chandising in a small way, under the firm name
of Rice & Temple." The following description,
taken from Robinson's "Life in California."
while written of Monterey, applies equally well
to Los Angeles and vicinity : "Scarce two
houses in tlie town had fireplaces; then (1829)
the method of heating ihe houses was by plac-
ing coals in a roof tile, which was placed in the
center of the room." "This method we found
common throughout the country. There were no
windows; and in place of the ordinary wooden
door a dried bullock hide was substituted, which
was the case as a general thing in nearly all the

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ranches on the coast, as there was no fear of in-
trusion excepting from bears that now and then
prowled about and were easily frightened away
when they ventured too near. The bullock hide
was used almost universally in lieu of the old-
fashioned bed ticking, being nailed to the bed-
stead frame, and served every purpose for which
it was intended and was very comfortable to
sleep upon." At the close of the third decade of
the century we find but little change in the man-
ners and customs of the colonists from those of
the pobladores who nearly fifty years before
built their primitive habitations around the plaza
vieja. In the half century the town had slowly
increased in population, but there had been no
material improvement in the manner of living
and but little advancement in intelligence. The
population of the pueblo was largely made up of
descendants of the founders who had grown to
manhood and womanhood in the place of their
birth. Isolated from contact with the world's

activities they were content to follow the anti-
quated customs and to adopt the non-progres-
sive ideas of their fathers. They had passed from
under the domination of a monarchy and be-
come the citizens of a republic, but the transi-
tion was due to no effort of theirs nor was it of
their own choosing. With the assistance of the
missions they had erected a new church, but
neither by the help of the missions nor by their
own exertions had they iDiiilt a schoolhouse. In
the first half century of the pueblo's existence,
if tlie records are correct, there were but three
terms of school. Generations grew to manhood
during the vacations. "A little learning is a
dangerous thing." The learning obtained at
the pueblo school in the brief term that it was
open never reached the danger pomt. The lim-
ited foreign immigration that had come to the
country after it had passed from the rule of
Spain had as yet made no change in its cus-
toms.

CHAPTER X.

MISSION SECULARIZATION AND THE PASSING OF THE NEOPHYTE.

IT IS not my purpose in this volume to de-
vote much space to the subject of the Sec-
ularization of the Missions. Any extended
discussion of that theme would be out of place
in a local history.

Much has been written in recent years on the
subject of the Franciscan Missions of Alta Cali-
fornia, but the writers have added nothing to
our knowledge of these establishments beyond
what can be obtained from the works of Ban-
croft, Hittell, Forbes and Robinson. Some of
the later writers, carried awa-y by sentiment, are
very misleading in their statements. Such ex-
pressions as "the Robber Hand of Seculariza-
tion" and "the brutal and thievish dis-establish-
ment of the missions" emanate from writers who
look at the question from its sentimental side
only, and who know little or nothing of the
causes which brought about the secularization of
the mission.

It is an historical fact known to all acquainted
with California history that these establishments
were not intended by the Crown of Spain to be-
come permanent institutions. The purpose for
which the Spanish government fostered and pro-
tected them was to christianize the Indians and
make of them self-supporting citizens. Very
early in its history Governor Borica, Fages and
other intelligent Spanish ofificers in California
discovered the weakness of the mission system.
Governor Borica, writing in T/O^i, sairl : ".Ac-

cording to the laws the natives are to be free
from tutelage at the end of ten years, the Mis-
sions then becoiiiing doctrinairs, but those of
New California at the rate they are advancing
will not reach the goal in ten centuries; the rea-
son, God knows, and men, too, know something
about it." Spain, early in the present century,
had formulated a plan for their secularization,
but the war of Mexican Independence prevented
the enforcement of it.

With the downfall of Spanish domination in
Mexico came the beginning of the end of mis-
sionary rule in California. The majority of the
mission padres were Spanish born. In the war
of Mexican independence their sympathies were
with their mother country, Spain. .After Mexico
attained her independence, some of them refused
to acknowledge allegiance to the Republic. The
Mexican authorities feared and distrusted them.
In this, in part, they found a pretext for the dis-
establishment of the missions and the confisca-
tion of the mission estates. There was another
cause or reason for secularization more potent
than the loyalty of the padres to Spain. Few
forms of land monopoly have ever exceeded tlint
in vogue under the mission system of California.
From San Diego to San Francisco bay the
twenty missions established under Spanish rule
monopolized the greater part of the fertile land
between the Coast Range and the sea. There
was lull liltlo left for oilier settlers. A seltler

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

could not obtain a grant of land if the padres of
the nearest mission objected.

The twenty-four ranchos owned by the Mis-
sion San Gabriel contained about a million and
a half acres and extended from the sea to the
San Bernardino mountains. The greatest neo-
phyte population of San Gabriel was in 1817,
when it reached 1701. Its yearly average for the
first three decades of the present century did not
exceed 1,500. It took a thousand acres of fertile
land under the mission system to support an
Indian, even the smallest papoose of the mission
flock. It is not strange that the people clamored
for a subdivision of the mission estates; and sec-
ularization became a public necessity. The most
enthusiastic admirer of the missions to-day, had
he lived in California seventy years ago, would
no doubt have been among the loudest in his
wail against the mission system. The Regla-
mento governing the secularization of the mis-
sions published by Governor Echeandia in 1830,
but not enforced, and that formulated by the
diputacion under Governor Figueroa in 1834,
approved by the Mexican congress and finally
enforced in 1834-35-36, were humane measures.
The regulations provided for the colonizations
of the neophytes into pueblos or villages. A
portion of the personal property and a part of
the lands held by the missions \vere to be dis-
tributed among the Indians as follows : "Article
5 — To each head of a family and all who are
more than twenty years old, although without
families, will be given from the lands of the mis-
sion, whether temporal (lands dependent on the
seasons) or watered, a lot of ground not to con-
tain more than four hundred varas (yards) in
length, and as many in breadth, nor less than
one hundred. Sufficient land for watering the
cattle will be given in common. The outlets or
roads .shall be marked out by each village, and
at the proper time the corporation lands shall
I)e designated." This colonization of the neo-
phytes into pueblos would have thrown large
bodies of the land held by the missions open to
settlement by white settlers. The personal
property of missionary establishments was to
have been divided among their neophyte re-
tainers thus : "Rule 6. Among the said indi-
viduals will be distributed, ratably and justly,
according to the discretion of the political chief,
the half of the movable property, taking as a
basis the last inventory which the missionaries
have presented of all descriptions of cattle.
Rule 7. One-half or less of the implements and
seeds indispensable for agriculture shall be al-
lotted to them."

The political government of the Indian
pueblos was to be organized in accordance with
existing laws of the territory governing other

towns. The neophyte could not sell, mortgage
or dispose of the land granted him ; nor could
he sell his cattle. The regulations provided that
"Religious missionaries shall be relieved from
the administration of temporalities and shall
only exercise the duties of their ministry so far
as they relate to spiritual matters." The nun-
neries or the houses where the Indian girls were
kept under charge of a duena until they were
of marriageable age were to be abolished and
the children restored to their parents. Rule
seven provided that "What is called the 'priest-
hood' shall immediately cease, female children
whom they have in charge being handed over to
their fathers explaining to them the care they
should take of them, and pointing out their
obligations as parents. The same shall be done
with the male children."

Commissioners were to be appointed to take
charge of the mission property and superintend
its subdivision among the neophytes. The con-
version of ten of the missionary establishments
into pueblos was to begin in August, 1835. That
of the others was to follow as soon as possible.
San Gabriel, San Fernando and San Juan Capis-
trano were among the ten that were to be sec-
ularized first. For years secularization had
threatened the missions, but hitherto something-
had occurred at the critical time to avert it. The
missionaries had used their influence against it,
had urged that the neophytes were unfitted for
self-support, had argued that the emancipation
of the natives from mission rule would result in
disaster to them. Through all the agitation of
the question in previous years the padres had
labored on in the preservation and upbuilding
of their establishments; but the issuing of
the secularization decree by the Mexican Con-
gress, August 17, 1833, the organization of the
Hijar Colony in Mexico and the instructions of
acting President Frarias to Hijar to occupy all
the property of the missions and subdivide it
among the colonists on their arrival in Cali-
fornia, convinced the missionaries that the blow
could no longer be averted. The revocation of
Hijar's appointment as governor and the con-
troversy which followed between him and Gov-
ernor Figueroa and the diputacion for a time
delayed the enforcement of the decree.

In the meantime, with the energy born of
despair, eager at any cost to outwit those who
sought to profit by their ruin, the mission
fathers hastened to destroy that which through
more than half a century thousands of human
beings had spent their lives to accumulate.

"Hitherto, cattle had been killed only as their
meat was needed for use, or, at intervals per-
haps, for the hides and tallow alone, when an
overplus of stock rendered such action neces-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

sary. Now they were slaughtered in herds by
contract on equal shares, with any who would
undertake the task. It is claimed by some
writers that not less than 100,000 head of cattle
were thus slain from the herds of San Gabriel
Mission alone. The same work of destruction
was in progress at every other mission through-
out the territory and this vast country, from end
to end, was become a mighty shambles,
drenched in blood and reeking with the odor of
decaying carcasses. There was no market for
the meat and this was considered worthless.
The creature was lassoed, thrown, its throat cut,
and while yet writhing in death agony its hide
was stripped and pegged upon the ground to
dry. There were no vessels to contain the tallow
and this was run into great pits dug for that
purpose, to be spaded out anon, and shipped
with the hides to market — all was haste."

"Whites and natives alike revelled in gore,
and vied with each other in destruction. So
many cattle were there to kill, it seemed as
though this profitable and pleasant work must
last forever. The white settlers were especially
pleased with the turn affairs had taken, and
many of them did not scruple unceremoniously
to appropriate herds of young cattle wherewith
to stock their ranches."* So great was the
stench from the rotting carcasses of the cattle on
the plains that a pestilence was threatened. The
ayuntamiento of Los Angeles, November 15,
1833, passed an ordinance compelling all persons
slaughtering cattle for the hides and tallow to
cremate the carcasses.

Hugo Reid in the "Letters" (previously re-
ferred to in this volume) says of this period at
San Gabriel: "These facts (the decree of sec-
ularization and the distribution of the mission
property) being known to Padre Tomas
(Estenaga), he, in all probability by order of his
superior, commenced a work of destruction.
The back buildings were unroofed and the tim-
ber converted into fire wood. Cattle were killed
on the halves by people who took a lion's share.
Utensils were disposed of, and goods and other
articles distributed in profusion among the
neophytes. The vineyards were ordered to be
, cut down, which, however, the Indians refused
to do." After the mission was placed in charge
of an administrator, Padre Tomas remained as
minister of the church at a stipend of $1,500 per
annum, derived from the Pious Fund.

Hugo Reid says of him, "As a wrong impres-
sion of his character may be produced from the
preceding remarks, in justice to his memory be
it stated that he was a truly good man, a sin-

*History of Los Angeles County, by J. Albert
Wilson.

cere Christian and a despiser of hypocrisy. He
had a kind, unsophisticated heart, so that he be-
lived every word told him. There has never
been a purer priest in California. Reduced in
circumstances, annoyed on many occasions by
the petulancy of administrators, he fulfilled his
duties according to his conscience, with benev-
olence and good humor. The nuns, who when
the secular movement came into operation, had
been set free, were again gathered together un-
der his supervision and maintained at his ex-
pense, as were also a number of old men and
women."

The experiment of colonizing the Indians in
pueblos was a failure and they were gathered
back into the mission, or as many of them as
could be got back, and placed in charge of ad-
ministrators. "The Indians," says Reid, "were
made happy at this time in being permitted to
enjoy once more the luxury of a tule dwelling,
from which the greater part had been debarred
for so long; they could now breathe freely
again." (The close adobe buildings in which
they had been housed in mission days were no
doubt one of the causes of the great mortality
among them.)

"Administrator followed administrator until
the mission could support no more, when the
system was broken up." * * * "The In-
dians during this period were continually run-
ning of?. Scantily clothed and still more scantily
supplied with food, it was not to be wondered
at. Nearly all the Gabrielinos went north, while
those of San Diego, San Luis and San Juan
overrun this country, filling the Angeles and
surrounding ranchos with more servants than
were required. Labor, in consequence, was very
cheap. The different missions, however, had
alcaldes continually on the move hunting them
up and carrying them back, but to no purpose ;
it was labor in vain."

"Even under the dominion of the church in
mission days," Reid says, "the neophytes were
addicted both to drinking and gaming, with an
inclination to steal ;" but after their emancipa-
tion they went from bad to worse. Those at-
tached to the ranchos and those located in the
town were virtually slaves. They had bosses or
owners and when they ran away were captured
and returned to their master. The sindico's ac-
count book for 1840 contains this item "For
delivery of two Indians to their boss, $12.00."

At Los Angeles the Indian village on the river
between what is now Aliso and First streets was
a sink hole of crime. It was known as the "pueb-
lilo'' or little town. Time and again the neigh-
boring citizens petitioned for its removal. In
1846 it was demolished and the Indians removed
to the "Spring of the Abilas" across the river.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

but their removal did not improve their morals.

In 1847, when the American soldiers vi^ere sta-
tioned at Los Angeles, the new pueblito became so
vile that Col. Stevenson ordered the city author-
ities either to keep the dissolute characters out
of it or destroy it. The authorities decided to
allot land to the families on the outskirts of the
city, keeping them dispersed as much as possi-
ble. Those employing Indian servants were
required to keep them on their premises ; but
even these precautions did not prevent the In-
dians from drunkenness and debauchery.
Vicente Guerrero, the sindico, discussing the
Indian question before the ayuntamiento said :
"The Indians are so utterly depraved that no
matter wTiere they may settle down their con-
duct would be the same, since they look upon
death even with indifference, provided they can
indulge in their pleasures and vices."

After the downfall of the missions some of
the more daring of the neophytes escaped to the
mountains. Joining the wild tribes there, they
became leaders in frequent predatory excursions
on the horses and cattle of the settlers in the
valleys. They were hunted and shot down like
wild beasts.

After the discovery of gold and American
immigration began to pour into California the
neophyte sunk to lower depths. The vineyards
of Los Angeles became immensely profitable,
grapes retailing at twenty-five cents a pound in
San Francisco. The Indians constituted the
labor element of Los Angeles, and many of
them were skillful vineyardists. Unprincipled
employers paid them ofif in aguardiente, a iiery
liquid distilled from grapes. Even when paid in
money there were unscrupulous wretches ready
to sell tliem strong drink ; the consequences
were that on Saturday night after they received
their pay they assembled at their ranclierias and
all, young and old, men and women, spent the
night in drunkenness, gambling and debauchery.
( )n Sunday afternoon the marshal with his In-
dian alcaldes, who had been kept sober by being
locked up in jail, proceeded to gather the drunk-
en wretches into a big corral in the rear of the
Downey block. On Monday morning they were
put up at auction and sold for a week to the

vineyardists at prices ranging from one to three
dollars, one third of which was paid to the slave
at the end of the week, usually in aguardiente.
Then another Saturday night of debauchery,
followed by the Monday auction and in two or
three years at most the Indian was dead. In
less than a quarter of a century after the Ameri-
can occupation, dissipation and epidemics of
smallpox had settled the Indian question in Los
Angeles — settled it by the extinction of the
Indian.

What became of the vast mission estates? As
the cattle were killed oft' the dift'erent ranchos of
the mission domains, settlers petitioned the ay-
untamiento for grants. If upon investigation it
was found that the land asked for was vacant the
petition was referred to the Governor for his ap-
proval. In this way the vast mission domains
passed into private hands. The country im-
proved more in wealth and population between
1836 and 1846 than in the previous fifty years.
Secularization was destruction to the missions
and death to the Indian, but it was beneficial to
the country at large. The passing of the neo-
phyte had begun long before the decrees of
secularization were enforced. Nearly all the
missions passed their zenith in population during
the second decade of the century. Even had
the missionary establishments not been secular-
ized they would eventually have been depopu-
lated. At no time during mission rule were the
number of births equal to the number of deaths.
When recruits could no longer be obtained
from the Gentiles or wild Indians the decline
became more rapid. The mission annals show
that from 1769 to 1834, when secularization was
enforced — an interval of 65 years — 79,000 con-
verts were baptized and 62,000 deaths recorded.
The death rate among the neopiiytes was about
twice that of the negro in this country and four
times that of the white race. The extinction
of the neophyte or mission Indian was due to
the enforcement of that inexorable law or decree
of nature, the Survival of the Fittest. Where a
stronger race comes in contact with a weaker
there can be but one ending to the contest —
the extermination of the weaker.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XI.

A DECADE OF REVOLUTIONS.

THE decade between 1830 and 1840 was the
era of California revolutions. Los An-
geles was the storm center of the political
disturbances that agitated the territory. Most
of them originated there, and those that had
their origin in some other quarter veered to the
town before their fury was spent. The town
produced prolific crops of statesmen in the '30s,
and it must be said that it still maintains its repu-
tation in that line. The Angelehos of that day
seemed to consider that the safety of the terri-
tory and the liberty of its inhabitants rested on
them. The patriots of the south were hostile to
the office-holders of the north and yearned to
tear the state in two, as they do to-day, in order
that there might be more offices to fill.

From the downfall of Spanish domination in
California in 1822 to the close of that decade
there had been but few disturbances. The only
political outbreak of any consequence had been
Solis' and Herrera's attempt to revolutionize the
territory in the interest of Spain. Argiiello, who
had succeeded Sola as governor, and Echeandia,
who filled the office from 1825 to the close of the
decade, were men of liberal ideas. They had to
contend against the Spanish-born missionaries,
who were bitterly opposed to republican ideas.
Serria, the president of the missions, and a num-
ber of the priests under him, refused to swear
allegiance to the Republic. Serria was suspended
from office and one or two of the friars deported
from the country. Their disloyalty brought
about the beginning of the movement for secu-
larization of the missions, as narrated in the
previous chapter. Echeandia, in 1829, had elab-
orated a plan for their secularization, but was
superseded by Victoria before he could put it in
operation.

Manuel Victoria was appointed governor in
March, 1830, but did not reach California until
the last month of the year. Victoria very soon
became unpopular. He undertook to overturn
the civil authority and substitute military rule.
He reconunended the abolition of the ayunta-
mientos and refused to call together the terri-
torial diputacion. He exiled Don Abel Stearns
and Jose Antonio Carrillo ; and at different
times, on trumped-up charges, had half a hundred
of the leading citizens of Los Angeles incarcer-
ated in the pueblo jail, .\lcaldc Mccnte San-

chez was the petty despot of the pueblo who car-
ried out the tyrannical decrees of his master,
Victoria. Among others who were imprisoned
in the cuartel was Jose Maria Avila. Avila was
proud, haughty and overbearing. He had in-
curred the hatred of both Victoria and Sanchez.
Sanchez, under orders from Victoria, placed
Avila in prison, and to humiliate him put him
in irons. Avila brooded over the indignities in-
flicted upon him and vowed to be revenged.

A'ictoria's persecutions became so unbearable
that Pio Pico, Juan Bandini and Jose Antonio
Carrillo raised the standard of revolt at San
Diego and issued a pronunciamiento, in which
they set forth the reasons why they felt them-
selves obliged to rise against the tyrant, Victoria.
Pablo de Portilla, comandante of the presidio
of San Diego, and his officers, with a force of
fifty soldiers, joined the revolutionists and
niarclied to Los Angeles. Sanchez' prisoners
were released and he was chained up in the
pueblo jail. Here Portilla's force was recruited
to two hundred men. Avila and a number of
the other released prisoners joined the revolu-
tionists, and all marched forth to meet Victoria,
who was moving southward with an armed force
to suppress the insurrection. The two forces
met on the plains of Cahuenga. west of the
pueblo, at a place laiown as the Lomitas de la
Canada de Brcita. The sight of his persecutor
so infuriated Avila that alone he rushed upon
him to run him through with his lance. Captain
Pacheco, of \'ictoria's staff, parried the lance
thrust. Avila shot him dead with one of his pis-
tols and again attacked the governor and suc-
ceeded in wounding him, when he himself re-
ceived a pistol ball that unhorsed him. After
a desperate struggle (in which he seized Victoria
by the foot and dragged him from his horse) he
was shot by one of \'ictoria's soldiers. Portilla's
army fell back in a panic to Los Angeles and
\'ictoria's men carried the wounded governor
to the Mission San Gabriel, where his wounds
were dressed by Joseph Chapman, who to his
many other accomplishments added that of ama-
teur surgeon. Some citizens who had taken no
part in the fight brought the bodies of Avila and
Pacheco to the town. "They were taken to the
same house, the same hands rendered them the
last sad rites, and they were laid side by side.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Side by side knelt their widows and mingled
their tears, while sympathizing countrymen
chanted the solemn prayers of the church for
the repose of the souls of these untimely dead.
Side by side beneath the orange and the olive in
the little churchyard upon the plaza sleep the
slayer and the .slain."*

Next day, Victoria, supposing himself mor-
tally wounded, abdicated and turned over the
governorship of the territory to Echeandia. He
resigned the office December 9, 1831, having
been governor a little over ten months. When
Victoria was able to travel he was sent to San
Diego, from where he was deported to Mexico,
San Diego borrowing $125 from the ayunta-
miento of Los Angeles to pay the expense of
shipping him out of the country. Several years
afterwards the money had not been repaid, and
the town council began proceedings to recoyer
it, but there is no record in the archives to show
that it was ever paid. And thus it was that Cali-
fornia got rid of a bad governor and Los An-
geles incurred a bad debt.

January 10, 1832, the territorial legislature
met at Los Angeles to choose a "gefe politico,"
or governor, for the territory. Echeandia was
invited to preside, but replied from San Juan
Capistrano that he was busy getting Victoria out
of the country. The diputacion, after waiting"
some time and receiving no satisfaction from
Echeandia whether he wanted the office or not,
declared Pio Pico, by virtue of his office of senior
vocal, "gefe politico."

No sooner had Pico been sworn into office
than Echeandia discovered that he wanted the
office and wanted it badly. He came to Los
Angeles from San Diego. He protested against
the action of the diputacion and intrigued against
Pico. Another revolution was threatened. Los
Angeles favored Echeandia, although all the
other towns in the territory had accepted Pico.
(Pico at that time was a resident of San Diego.)
A mass-meeting was called on February 12,
1832, at Los Angeles to discuss the question
whether it should be Pico or Echeandia. I give
the report of the meeting in the quaint language
of the pueblo archives :

"The town, acting in accord with the Most
Illustrious Ayuntamiento, answered in a loud
voice, saying they would not admit Citizen Pio
Pico as 'gefe politico,' but desired that Lieut.
Col. Citizen Jose Maria Echeandia be retained in
office until the supreme government appoint.
Then the president of the meeting, seeing the
determination of the people, asked the motive
or reason of refusing Citizen Pio Pico, who was
of unblemished character. To this the people

♦Stephen C. Foster.

responded that while it was true that Citizen Pio
Pico was to some extent qualified, yet they pre-
ferred Lieut.-Col. Citizen Jose Ma. Echeandia.
The president of the meeting then asked the peo-
ple whether they had been bribed, or was it
merely insubordination that they opposed the
resolution of- the Most Eccellent Diputacion?
Whereupon the people answered that they had
not been bribed nor were they insubordinate, but
that they opposed the proposed 'gefe politico'
because he had not been named by the supreme
government."

At a public meeting, February 19, the matter
was again brought up. Again the people cried
out, "they would not recognize or obey any
other gefe politico than Echeandia." The Most
Illustrious Ayuntamiento opposed Pio Pico for
two reasons : "First, because his name appeared
first on the plan to oust Gefe Politico Citizen
Manuel Victoria," and "Second, because he,
Pico, had not sufficient capacity to fulfil the
duties of the office." Then Jose Perez and Jose
Antonio Carrillo withdrew from the meeting,
saying they would not recognize Echeandia as
"gefe politico." Pico, after holding tlie office
for twenty days, resigned for the sake of peace.
And this was the length of Pico's first term as
governor.

Echeandia, by obstinacy and intrigue, had ob-
tained the coveted office of "gefe politico," but
he did not long enjoy it in peace. News came
from Monterey that Captain Augustin V. Za-
morano had declared himself governor and was
gathering a force to invade the south and en-
force his authority. Echeandia began at once
marshaling his forces to oppose him. Ybarra.
Zamorano's military chief, with a force of one
hundred men, by a forced march reached Paso
de Bartolo, on the San Gabriel River, where fif-
teen years later Stockton fought the ^fcxican
troops under Flores. Here Ybarra found Cap-
tain Borroso posted with a piece of artillery and
fourteen men. He did not dare to attack him.
Echeandia and Borroso gathered a force of a
thousand neophytes at Paso de Bartolo, where
they drilled them in military evolutions. Ybar-
ra's troops had fallen back to Santa Barbara,
where he was joined by Zamorano with rein-
forcements. Ybarra's force was largely made up
of ex-convicts and other undesirable characters,
who took what they needed, asking no questions
of the owners. The Angclenos, fearing those
marauders, gave their adhesion to Zamorano's
l)lan and recognized him as military chief of the
territory. Captain Borroso, Echeandia's faithful
adherent, disgusted with the fickleness of the
Angeleiios, at the head of a thousand mounted
Indians, threatened to invade the recalcitrant
pueblo, but at the intercession of the frightened

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

inhabitants this modern Coriolanus turned aside
and regaled his neophyte retainers un the fat
bullocks of the Mission San Gabriel, much to
the disgust of the mission padres. The neophyte
warriors were disbanded and sent to their re-
spective missions.

A peace was patched up between Zamorano
and Echeandia. Alta California was divided
into two territories. Eclieandia was given juris-
diction over all south of San Gabriel and Zamo-
rano all north of San Fernando. This division
apparently left a neutral district, or "no man's
land," between. \\'hether Los Angeles was in
this neutral territory the records do not show.
If it was, it is probable that neither of the gov-
ernors wanted the job of governing the recal-
citrant pueblo.

In January, 1833, Governor Figueroa arrived
in California. Echeandia and Zamorano each
surrendered his half of the divided territory to
the newly appointed governor, and California
was united and at peace. Figueroa proved to be
the right man for the times. He conciliated the
factions and brought order out of chaos. The
two most important events in Figueroa's term of
office were the arrival of the Hijar Colony in
California and the secularization of the missions.
These events were most potent factors in the
evolution of the territory.

In 1833, the first California colonization
scheme was inaugurated in Mexico. At the
head of this was Jose Maria Hijar, a Mexican
gentleman of wealth and influence. He was as-
sisted in its promulgation by Jose M. Padres,
an adventurer, who had been banished from
California by Governor \^ictoria. Padres, like
some of our modern real estate boomers, pic-
tured the country as an earthly paradise — an im-
proved and enlarged Garden of Eden. Among
other inducements held out to the colonists, it
is said, was the promise of a division among
them of the mission property and a distribution
of the neophytes for servants.

Headquarters were established at the city of
Mexico and two hundred and fifty colonists en-
listed. Each family received a bonus of $10,
and all were to receive free transportation to
California and rations while on the journey.
Each head of a family was promised a farm from
the public domain, live stock and farming imple-
ments ; these advances to be paid for on the in-
stallment plan. The original plan was to found
a colony somewhere north of San Francisco bay,
but this was not carried out. Two vessels were
dispatched with the colonists — the Morelos and
the Natalia. The latter was compelled to put
into San Diego on account of sickness on board.
She reached that port, September i, 1834. A
part of the colonists on board her were sent to

San Pedro and from there they were taken to
Los Angeles and San Gabriel. The Morelos
reached Monterey, September 25. Hijar had
been appointed governor of California by Presi-
dent Farias, but after the sailing of the expedi-
tion Santa Anna, who had succeeded Farias,
dispatched a courier overland with a counter-
manding order. By one of the famous rides of
history, Amador, the courier, made the journey
from the city of Mexico to Monterey in forty
days and delivered his message to Governor Fi-
gueroa. When Hijar arrived he found to his
dismay that he was only a private citizen of the
territory instead of its governor. The coloniza-
tion scheme was abandoned and the immigrants
distributed themselves throughout the territory.
Generally they were a good class of citizens, and
many of them became prominent in California
affairs. Of those who located in Southern Cali-
fornia may be named Ignacio Coronel and his
son, Antonio F. Coronel, Augustin Olvera, the
first county judge of Los Angeles ; Victor Pru-
don, Jose M. Covarrubias, Charles Baric, Jesus
Noe and Juan N. Ayala.

That storm center of political disturbances,
Los Angeles, produced but one small revolution
during Figueroa's term as governor. A party of
fifty or sixty Sonorans, some of whom were
Hijar colonists who were living either in the
town or its immediate neighborhood, assembled
at Los Nietos on the night of March 7, 1835.
They formulated a pronunciamiento against Don
Jose Figueroa, in which they first vigorously
arraigned him for sins of omission and commis-
sion and then laid down their plan for the gov-
ernment of the territory. Armed with this for-
midable document and a few muskets and lances,
these patriots, headed by Juan Gallado, a cob-
bler, and Felipe Castillo, a cigar-maker, in the
gray light of the morning rode into the pueblo,
took possession of the town hall and the big
icannon and the ammunition that had been
stored there w'hen the Indians of San Luis Rey
had threatened hostilities. The slumbering in-
habitants were aroused from their dreams of
peace by the drum beat of war. The terrified
citizens rallied to the juzgado, the ayuntamiento
met, the cobbler statesmen, Gallado, presented
his plan ; it was discussed and rejected. The
revolutionists, after holding possession of the
pueblo throughout the day, tired, hungry and
disappointed in not receiving their pay for sav-
ing the country, surrendered to the legal author-
ities the real leaders of the revolution and dis-
banded. The leaders proved to be Torres, a
clerk, and Apalatcgui, a doctor, both supposed
to be emissaries of Hijar. They were impris-
oned at San Gabriel. When news of the revolt
reached Figueroa he had Hijar and Padres ar-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

rested for coniplicity in the outbreak. Hijar,
with lialf a dozen of his adherents, was shipped
back to Mexico. And thus the man who the year
before had landed in California with a commis-
sion as governor and authority to take posses-
sion of all the property belonging to the mis-
sions, returned to his native land an exile. His
grand colonization scheme and his "Compania
Cosmopolitana" that was to revolutionize Cali-
fornia commerce were both disastrous failures.

Governor Jose Figueroa died at Monterey
September 29, 1835. He is generally regarded
as the best of the Mexican governors sent to
California. He was of Aztec extraction and was
proud of his Indian blood. Governor Figueroa
during his last sickness turned over the political
command of the territory to Jose Castro, senior
vocal, who then became "gefe politico." Los
Angeles refused to recognize his authority. By
a decree of the Mexican congress (of which the
following is a copy) it had just been declared a
city and the capital of Alta California :

"His excellency, the president ad interim of
the United States of Mexico, Miguel Barragan.
The president ad interim of the United States
of Mexico, to the inhabitants of the republic.
Let it be known : That the general congress has
decreed the following: That the town of Los
Angeles, Upper California, is erected to a city
and shall be for the future the capital of that
territory.

Basilo Arrillag.\,

President House of Deputies.

Antonio Pacheco Leal,

President of the Senate.
Demetrio Del Castillo,

Secretary House of Deputies.
Manuel Mirand.\,

Secretary of the Senate.

I therefore order it to be printed and circu-
lated and duly complied with.

Palace of the federal government in Mexico,
May 2T^, 1835. Miguel Barkaga.v."

The ayuntamiento claimed that as Los
Angeles was the capital the governor should re-
move his office and archives to that city. Mon-
terey opposed the removal, and considerable bit-
terness was engendered. This was the beginning
of the "capital war," which disturbed the peace
of the territory for ten years, and increased in
bitterness as it increased in age.

Castro held the office of gefe politico four
months and then passed it on to Colonel Gutier-
rez, military chief of the territory, who held it
about the same length of time. The supreme
government, December 16, 1835, appointed
Mariano Chico governor. Thus the territory
had four governors within nine months. They
changed so rapidly that there was not time to
foment a revolution.

Chico reached California in April, 1836, and
began his administration by a series of petty
tyrannies. Just before his arrival in California
a vigilance committee at Los Angeles shot to
death Gervacio Alispaz and his paramour, Maria
del Rosario Villa, for the murder of the woman's
husband, Domingo Feliz. Chico had the leaders
arrested and came down to Los Angeles with
the avowed purpose of executing Prudon, Ar-
zaga and Aranjo, the president, secretary and
military commander, respectively, of the Defend-
ers of Public Security, as the vigilantes called
themselves. He summoned Don Abel Stearns
to Monterey and threatened to have him shot
for some unknown or imaginary offense. He
fulminated a fierce pronunciamiento against for-
eigners, and, in an address before the diputacion,
proved to his own satisfaction that the country
was going to the "demnition bow-wows." Ex-
asperated beyond endurance, the people of Mon-
terey rose en masse against him, and so terrified
him that he took passage on board a brig that
was lying in the harbor and sailed for Mexico.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XII.

EL ESTADO LIBRE Y SOBERANO DE ALTA CALIFORNIA.
(The Free and Sovereign State of Alta California.)

THE effort to free California from the domi-
nation of Mexico and make her an inde-
pendent government is an ahnost un-
known chapter of her history. Los Angeles
and San Diego played a very important part in
California's war for Independence, but unfor-
tunately their efforts were wrongly directed and
they received neither honor nor profit out of the
part they played. The story of the part they
played in the revolution is told in the Los An-
geles Archives. From these I derive much of
the matter given in this chapter.

The origin of the movement to make Cali-
fornia independent and the causes that led to an
outbreak against the governing power were
very similar to those which led to our separation
from our own mother country of England,
namely, bad governors. Between 1830 and 1836
the territory had had six Mexican-born govern-
ors. The best of these, Figueroa, died in office.
Of the others the Californians deposed and de-
ported two ; and a third was made so uncomfort-
able that he exiled himself. Many of the acts of
these governors were as despotic as those of the
royal governors of the colonies before our Revo-
lution. California was a fertile field for Mexican
adventurers of broken fortunes. Mexican offi-
cers commanded the provincial troops ; Mexi-
can officials looked after the revenues and em-
l)ezzled them, and Mexican governors ruled the
territory. There was no outlet for the ambitious
native-born sons of California. There was no
chance for the hijos del pais (Sons of the Coun-
try) to obtain office, and one of the most treas-
ured prerogatives of the free-born citizen of any
republic is the privilege of holding office.

We closed the previous chapter of the revolu-
tionary decade with the departure of Governor
Marino Chico, who was deposed and virtually
exiled by the people of Monterey. On his de-
parture Colonel Gutierrez for the second time
i)ccame governor. He very soon made himself
unpopular by attempting to enforce the Central-
ist decrees of the Mexican Congress and by
other arbitrary measures. He quarreled with
Juan Bautista .Mvarado, the ablest of the native
Californians. .Mvarado and Jose Castro raised

the standard of revolt. They gathered together
a small army of rancheros and an auxiliary force
of twenty-five American hunters and trappers
under Graham, a backwoodsman from Tennes-
see. By a strategic movement they captured the
Castillo or fort which commanded the presidio
where Gutierrez and the Alexican army officials
were stationed. The patriots demanded the sur-
render of the presidio and the arms. The gov-
ernor refused. The revolutionists had been able
to find but a single cannon ball in the castillo,
but this was sufficient to do the business. A
well-directed shot tore through the roof of the
governor's house, covering him and his staff
with the debris of broken tiles; this, and the de-
sertion of most of his soldiers to the patriots,
brought him to terms. On the 5th of November,
1836, he surrendered the presidio and his au-
thority as governor. He and about seventy of
his adherents were sent aboard a vessel lying in
the harbor and shipped out of the country.

With the Mexican governor and his officers
out of the country the next move of Castro and
Alvarado was to call a meeting of the diputacion
or territorial congress. A plan for the inde-
pendence of California was adopted. This,
which was known afterwards as the Monterey
plan, consisted of six sections, the most impor-
tant of which are as follows : "First, Alta Cali-
fornia hereby declares itself independent from
Mexico until the Federal System of 1824 is re-
stored. Second, The same California is hereby
declared a Free and Sovereign State ; establish-
ing a congress to enact the special laws of the
country and the other necessary supreme pow-
ers. Third, The Roman Apostolic Catholic
Religion shall prevail, no other creed shall be
allowed, but the government shall not molest
anyone on account of his private opinions." The
diputacion issued a Declaration of Independence
that arraigned the Alother Country, Mexico,
and her officials very much in the style that our
own Declaration gives it to King George HI.
and England.

Castro issued a pronunciamiento ending with
\'iva La Federacion ! \'iva La Libertad ! \'iva el
F.slado Libre y Sobcrano de .Mta California!

HISTORICAL AND lUOGRAPIIlCAL RFX-QRD.

Tims amid vi\as and proclamations, with the
heating of drums and the booming of cannon,
I'd Estado Libre de Alta California (The Free
State of Alta California) was launched on the
political sea. But it was rough sailing for the
little craft. Her ship of state struck a rock and
fur a time shipwreck was threatened.

For years there had been a growing jealousy
lietwecn Northern and Southern California. Los
Angeles, as has been stated in the previous chap-
ter, had by a decree of the Alexican Congress
been made the capital of the territory. Monterey
had persistently refused to give up the governor
and the archives. In the movement to make
Alia California a free and independent state, the
.\ngelenos recognized an attempt on the part of
the people of the North to deprive them of the
capital. Although as bitterly opposed to Mexi-
can governors, and as active in fomenting revo-
lutions against them as the people of Monterey
the Angeleiios chose to profess loyalty to the
Mother Country. They opposed the plan of
government adopted by the Congress at Monte-
rey and promulgated a plan of their own, in
wliich they declared California was not free ; that
the "Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion shall
])revail in this jurisdiction, and any person pub-
licly professing any other shall be prosecuted by
law as heretofore." A mass meeting was called
to take measures "to prevent the spreading of
the Monterey Revolution, so that the progress of
the Nation may not be paralyzed," and to ap-
point a i)erson to take military command of the
department.

San Diego and San Luis Rev took the part of
Los Angeles in the quarrel, Sonoiua and San
Jose joined Monterey, while Santa Barbara, al-
ways conservative, was undecided, but finally is-
sued a plan of her own. Alvarado and Castro
determined to suppress the revolutionary An-
gelenos. They collected a force of one hundred
men made up of natives and Graham's con-
tingent (jf twenty-five American riflemen. With
this arm_\- they prepared to move against the
recalcitrant snrcnos (southerners).

The ayuntamiento of Los Angeles began
preparations to resist the invaders .Vn army of
270 men was enrolled, a part of which was made
up of neo])hytes. To secure the sinews of war
Jose Sepulveda, second alcalde, was sent to the
Mission San I'ernando to secure what money
there was in the hands of the mayor domo. He
returned with two packages which when counted
were found to contain $2,000.

Scouts patrolled the Santa Barbara road as far
at San Buenaventura to give warning of the ap-
proach of tlie enemy, and pickets guarded the
Pass of Cahuenga and the Rodeo de 1-as Agnas
to prevent northern spies fri^m entering ;iiiil

southern traitors from getting out vi the pueblo.
The southern army was stationed at San
F'ernando under the command of Alferez
(Lieut.) Rocha. Alvarado and Castro pushing
rapidly down the coast reached Santa Barbara,
where they were kindly received and their force
recruited to 120 men with two pieces of artil-
lery. Jose Sepulveda at San Fernando sent to
Los Angeles for the cannon at the town house
and $200 of the mission money to pay his men.

On the 1 6th of January, 1837, Alvarado from
San Buenaventura dispatched a communication
to the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles and the
citizens, telling them wdiat military resources he
had, which he would use against them if it be-
came necessary, but he was willing to confer
upon a plan of settletnent. Sepulveda and A.
AI. Osio were appointed commissioners and sent
to confer with the governor, armed with several
propositions, the substance of wdiich was that
California shall not be free and the Catholic
rehgion must prevail with the privilege to pros-
ecute any other religion "according to law as
heretofore." The commissioners inet Alvarado
on "neutral ground," between San Fernando
and San Buenaventura. A long discussion fol-
lowed without either coining to the point. Al-
varado, by a coup d'etat, brought it to an end.
In the language of the commissioners' report to
the ayuntamiento : "While we were a certain
distance from our own forces with only four
unarmed men and were on the point of coming
to an agreement with Juan B. Alvarado we saw
the Monterey division advancing upon us and we
were forced to deliver up the instructions of
this Illustrious Body through fear of being at-
tacked." They delivered up not only the in-
structions but the Alission San Fernando. The
southern army was compelled to surrender it
and fall back on the j)ueblo, Rocha swearing-
worse than "our army in Flanders" because he
was not allowed to tight. The southern .soldiers
had a wholesome dread of Graham's riflemen.
These fellows, armed with long Kentucky rifles,
shot to kill, and a battle once begun somebody
would have died for his country and it would not
have been Alvarado's riflemen.

The day after the surrender of the mission,
January 21, 1837, the ayuntamiento held a ses-
sion and the members were as obdurate and
belligerent as ever. They resolved that it was
onlv in the interests of humanity that the mis-
sion had b.ecn surrendered and their army forced
to retire. "This ayuntamiento, considering the
commissioners were forced to comply, annuls
all action of the commissioners and does not rec-
ognize this territory as a free and sovereign state
11c ir Juan B. .Mvarado as its governor, and de-
cl.ires itself in favor of the Supreme Govern-

HISTORICAL AND BIOCRAPIIICAL RECORD.

iiicnt oi Mexico." A few days later Alvarado
entered the city without opposition, the Angele-
nian soldiers retiring to San Gabriel and from
there scattering to their homes.

On the 26th of January, an extraordinary ses-
sion of the most illustrious ayuntamiento was
held. Alvarado was present and made a lengthy
speech, in which he said, "the native sons were
subjected to ridicule by the Mexican mandarins
sent here, and, knowing our rights, we ought to
shake ofT the ominous yoke of bondage." Then
he produced and read the six articles of the
Monterey plan ; the Council also produced a plan
and a treaty of amity was effected. Alvarado
was recognized as governor pro tem. and peace
reigned. The belligerent surefios vied with each
other in expressing their admiration for the new
order of things. Pio Pico wished to express the
pleasure it gave him to see a "hijo del pais" in
ofifice, and Antonio Osio, the most belligerent
of the sureiios. declared "that sooner than again
submit to a Mexican dictator as governor, he
would flee to the forest and be devoured by wild
beasts." The ayuntamiento was asked to pro-
vide a building for the government, "this being
the capital of the State." The hatchet api)arent-
ly was buried. Peace reigned in El Estado
Libre.

At the meeting of the town council on the
30th of January, Alvarado made another speech,
init it was neither conciliatory nor complimen-
tary. He arraigned the "traitors wdio were work-
ing against the peace of the country" and urged
the members to take measures "to liberate the
city from the hidden hands that will tangle them
in their own ruin." The pay of his troo]is who
were ordered here for the welfare of California
is due "and it is an honorable and preferred debt,
therefore the ayuntamiento will deliver to the
government the San Fernando money," said he.
With a wry face, very nuich such as a bt)y wears
when he is told that he has been spanked for his
own good, the alcalde turned over the balance of
the mission money to Juan Bautista, and the
governor took his departure for Monterey,
leaving, however. Col. Jose Castro with part of
his army stationed at Mission San Gabriel, os-
tensibly "to support the city's authority," but in
reality to keep a close watch on the citv authori-
ties.

Los Angeles was subjugated, peace reigned
and El Estado Libre de Alta California took her
place among the nations of the earth. But
peace's reign was brief. At the meeting of the
ayuntamiento May 27, 1838, Juan Bandini and
Santiago E. Argiiello of San Diego, appeared
with a ])rommcianiicnlo and a plan — San Diego's
l)!an of government. Montorev, Santa I'.arhrira
and Los Angeles had each fnnnnl.ited a plan of

government for the territory and now it was San
Diego's turn. Augustin V. Zamorano, who was
exiled with Governor Gutierrez, had crossed
the frontier and was made comandante-general
and territorial political chief ad interim by the
San Diego revolutionists. The plan restored
California to obedience to the supreme govern-
ment; all acts of the diputacion and the Monte-
rey plan were annulled and the northern rebels
were to be arraigned and tried for their part in
the revolution ; and so on through twenty ar-
ticles.

On the plea of an Indian outbreak near San
Diego, in which the red men, it was said, "were
to make an end of the white race," the big can-
non and a number of men were secured at Los
Angeles to assist in suppressing the Indians, but
in reality to reinforce the army of the San Diego
revolutionists. With a force of 125 men under
Zamorano and Portilla, "the army of the Su-
preme Government" moved against Castro at
Los Angeles. Castro retreated to Santa Barbara
and Portilla's army took position at San Fer-
nando.

The civil and military officials of Los Angeles
took the oath to support the Me.xican constitu-
tion of 1836 and, in their opinion, this absolved
them from all allegiance to Juan 1 >autista and his
Monterey plan. Alvarado hurried reinforce-
ments to Castro at Santa Barbara, and Portilla
called loudly for "men, arms and horses," to
march against the northern rebels. But neither
military chieftain advanced, and the summer
wore away without a battle. There were rumors
that Mexico was preparing to send an army of
1,000 men to subjugate the rebellious Califor-
nians. In October came the news that Jose An-
tonio Carrillo, the ^lachiavelli of California poli-
tics, had persuaded President Bustamente to ap-
l)oint Carlos Carrillo, ]ose's brother, governor
of .\lta California.

Then consternation seized the arribanas (ui)-
pers) of the north, and the abajanos (lowers) of
the south went wild with joy. It was not that
they loved Carlos Carrillo, for he was a Santa
Barbara man and had opposed them in the late
unpleasantness, but they saw in his appointment
an opportunity to get revenge on Juan Bautista
for the way he had humiliated them. They sent
congratulatory messages to Carrillo and invited
him to make Los Angeles the seat of his govern-
ment. Carrillo was flattered by their attentions
and consented. The 6th of December, 1837, was
set for his inauguration, and great preparations
were made for the event. The big cannon was
brought over from San Gabriel to fire salutes
and the citv was ordered illuminated on the
nights of tile 6th, 7th and 8th of December.
Cards of invitation were issued and the people

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

from the city and country were invited to at-
tend the inauguration ceremonies, "dressed as
decent as possible," so read the invitations.

The widow Josefa Alvarado's house, the finest
in the city, was secured for the governor's pal-
acio (palace). The largest hall in the city was
secured for the services and decorated as well as
it was possible. The city treasury, being in its
usual state of collapse, a subscription for defray-
ing the expenses was opened and horses, hides
and tallow, the current coin of the pueblo, were
lil)crally contributed.

(■•n the appointed da\-, "The Most Illustrious
.Vyuntaniiento and the citizens of the neighbor-
hood (so the old archives read) met his Excel-
lency, the Governor, Don Carlos Carrillo, who
made his appearance with a magnificent accom-
paniment." The secretary, Narciso Botello,
"read in a loud, clear and intelligib'.e voice, the
oath, and the governor repeated it after him."
At the moment the oath was completed, the
artillery thundered forth a salute and the bells
rang out a merry peal. The governor made a
speech, when all adjourned to the church, where
a mass was said and a solemn Te Deum sung ;
after which all repaired to the house of His Ex-
cellency, where the southern patriots drank his
health in bumpers of wine and shouted them-
selves hoarse in vivas to the new government.
An inauguration ball was held — the "beauty and
the chivalry of the south were gathered there."
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave
men. And it was :

"On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined;
Xo sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure

meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet."

Outside the lallow dips flared and flickered from
the porticos of the houses, bonfires blazed in the
streets and cannon boomed salvos from the old
plaza. Los Angeles was the capital at last and
iiad a governor all to herself, for Santa T.arbara
refused to recognize Carrillo, although he be-
longed within its jurisdiction.

The Angelcnos determine<l to subjugate the
r.arbarenos. .\n army of 200 men, under Cas-
tenada, was sent to capture the city. After a few
futile demonstrations, Casteiiada's forces fell
back to San Buenaventura.

Then Alvarado determined to subjugate the
.\ngelefios. He and Castro, gathering together
an army of 200 men, by forced marches they
reached San Buenaventura, and by a strategic
movement captured all of Castenada's horses
and drove his army into the Mission Church.
For two days the battle raged and. "cainmn Ic
the right of thcni," and "canmni in front nf ihrni

volleyed an<l thundered." ( 'ne man was killed
on tile northern side and the blood of several
nuistangs watered the soil of their native land —
died for their country. The southerners slipped
out of the church at night and fled up the valley
on foot. Castro's caballeros captured about 70
prisoners. Pio Pico, with reinforcements from
San Diego, met the demoralized remnants of
Casteiiada's army at the Santa Clara river, and
together all fell back to Los Angeles. Then
there was wailing in the old pueblo, where sc
lately there had been rejoicing. Gov. Carlos Car-
rillo gathered together what men he could get
to go with him and retreated to San Diego. Al-
varado's army took possession of tlie southern
capital and some of the leading conspirators
were sent as prisoners to Vallejo's bastile at Son-
oma.

Carrillo, at San Diego, received a small rein-
forcement from Mexico, under a Captain Tobar.
Tobar was made general and given command of
the southern army. Carrillo, having recovered
from his fright, sent an order to the northern
rebels to surrender within fifteen days under pen-
alty of being shot as traitors if they refused. In
the meantime Los Angeles was held by the
enemy. The second alcalde (the first, Louis
Aranas, was a prisoner) called a meeting to de-
vise some means "to have his excellency, Don
Carlos Carrillo, return to this capital, as his pres-
ence is very much desired by the citizens to pro-
tect their lives and property." A committee was
appointed to find Don Carlos.

Instead of surrendering, Castro and .\lvara-
do, with a force of 200 men, advanced against
Carrillo. The two armies met at Campo de Las
Flores. General Tobar had fortified a cattle
corral with raw-hides, carretas and Cottonwood
poles. A few shots from Alvarado's artillery
scattered Tobar's rawhide fortifications. Carrillo
surrendered. Tobar and a few of the leaders
escaped to Mexico. Alvarado ordered the mis-
guided Angclefiian soldiers to go home and
behave themselves. He brought the captive gov-
ernor back with him and left him with his (Car-
rillo's) wife at Santa Barbara, who became surety
for the deposed ruler. Not content with his un-
fortunate attempts to rule, he again claimed the
governorship on the plea that he had been ap-
pointed by the supreme government. But the
Angelenos had had enough of him. Disgusted
witli his incompetency, Juan Gallardo, at the
session of ]\[ay 14, 1838. presented a petition
praying that this ayuntamiento do not recognize
Carlos Carrillo as governor, and setting forth
the reasons why we, the petitioners, "should de-
clare ourselves subject to the northern govcr-
n.ir" and why they opposed Carrillo.

■'I'irst. In having compromised the i>enplo

HISTORICAL ANM) IJloGRArilLCAL RMCuRD.

from San Buenavciilura south into a declaration
of war, the incalculable calamities of which will
never be forgotten, not even by the most ignor-
ant."

"Second. Not satisfied with the unfortunate
event at San Buenaventura, he repeated the
same at Canipo de Las Flores, which, only
through a divine dispensation, California is not
to-day in mourning." Seventy citizens signed
the petition, but the city attorney, who had done
time in Yallejo"s bastile. decided the petition ille-
gal because it was written on common paper
when paper with the proper seal could be ob-
tained.

Next day Gallardo returned with his petition
on legal paper. The ayuntamiento decided to
sound the "public alarm" and call the people to-
gether to give them "public speech." The pub-
lic alarm was sounded. The people assembled
at the city hall ; speeches were made on both
sides; and when the vote was taken 22 were in
favor of the northern governor, 5 in favor of
whatever the ayuntamiento decides, and Serbulo
A'areles alone voted for Don Carlos Carrillo. So
the council decided to recognize Don Juan Bau-
tista Alvarado as governor and leave the su-
preme government to settle the contest be-
tween him and Carrillo.

Notwithstanding this apparent buiying of the
hatchet, there were rumors of plots and intrigues
in Los Angeles and San Diego against Alvara-
do. At length, aggravated beyond endurance,
the governor sent word to the surefios that if
they did not behave themselves he would shoot
ten of the leading men of the south. As he had
about that number locked up in the Castillo at
Sonoma, his was no idle threat.

One by one Alvarado's prisoners of state were
released from \'allejo's bastile at Sonoma and
returned to Los Angeles, sadder if not wiser
men. At the session of the ayuntamiento Octo-
ber 20, 1838, the president announced that Sen-
ior Regidor Jose Palomares had returned from
Sonoma, where he had been compelled to go by
reason of "political differences." and that he
should be allowed his seat in the council. The
request was granted unanimously

.•\t the next meeting Narciso Botello, its for-
mer secretary, after five and a half months' im-
prisomncnt at Sonoma, put in an appearance and

claimed his office and his pay. Although others
had filled the office in the interim the illustrious
ayuntamiento, "ignoring for what offense he was
incarcerated, could not suspend his salary." But
his salary was suspended. The treasury was
empty. The last horse and the last hide had
been paid out to defray the expenses of the in-
auguration festivities of Carlos, the Pretender.
and the civil war that followed. Indeed, there
was a treasury deficit of whole caballadas of
horses and bales of hides. Narciso's back pay
was a preferred claim that outlasted El Estado
Libre.

The surenos of Los Angeles and San Diego,
finding that in Alvarado they had a man of cour-
age and determination to deal with, ceased from
troubling him and submitted to the inevitable.

At the meeting of the ayuntamiento, October
5, 1839, a notification was received stating that
the supreme government of Mexico had ap-
pointed Juan Bautista Alvarado "Governor of
the Department." There was no grumbling or
dissent. On the contrary the records say, "This
Illustrious Body acknowledges receipt of the
communication and congratulates His Excel-
lency. It will announce the same to the citizens
to-morrow (Sunday), will raise the national col-
ors, salute the same with the required number
of volleys, and will invite the people to illumi-
nate their houses for a better display in rejoicing
at such a happy appointment." ^^lth his ap-
pointment by the supreme government the
"Free and sovereign state of ."Mta California" be-
came a dream of the past — a dead nation. In-
deed, months before Alvarado had abandoned
his idea of foundingan independentstateand had
taken the oath of allegiance to the constitution
of 1836. The loyal surenos received no thanks
from the supreme government for all their pro-
fessions of loyalty, whilst the rebellious arribanas
of the north obtained all the rewards — the gov-
ernor, the capital and the offices. The sui)reme
government gave the deposed governor. Carlos
Carrillo, a grant of the island of Santa Rosa, in
the Santa Barbara Channel, but whether it was
given him as a salve to his wounded dignity or
as an Elba or St. Helena, where, in the event of
his stirring up another revolution, he might be
banished a la Napoleon, the records do not in-
form us.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XIII,

THE CLOSING YEARS OF MEXICAN RULE.

THE decade of revolutions closed with
Alvarado firmly established as Governor
of the Department of the Californias.
(By the constitution of 1836 Upper and Lower
California had been united into a department.)
The hijos del pais had triumphed. A native son
was governor of the department ; another native
son was comandante of its military forces. The
membership of the departmental junta, which
had taken the place of the diputacion, was
largely made up of sons of the soil, and natives
filled the minor offices. In their zeal to rid
themselves of Mexican office-holders they had
invoked the assistance of another element that
was ultimately to be their undoing.

During the revolutionary era just passed the
foreign population had largely increased. Not
only had the foreigners come by sea, but they
had come by land. Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, a
New England-born trapper and hunter, was the
first man to enter California by the overland
route. He came in 1826 by the way of Great
Salt Lake and the Rio Virgin, then across the
desert through the Cajon Pass to San Gabriel
and Los Angeles. On his return he crossed the
Sierra Nevadas, and, following up the Hum-
l)oldt river, returned to Great Salt Lake. He
was the first white man to cross the Sierra Ne-
vadas. A number of trappers and hunters came
in the early '30s from New Mexico by way of
the old Mexican trail. This immigration was
largely American, and was made up of a bold,
adventurous class of men, some of them not
the most desirable immigrants. Of this latter
class were some of Graham's followers.

By invoking Graham's aid to place him in
power, Alvarado had fastened upon his shoul-
ders an Old Man of the Sea. It was easy enough
to enlist the services of Graham's riflemen, but
altogether another matter to get rid of them.
Now that he was firmly established in power,
.Mvarado would, no doubt, have Ijeen glad to be
rid entirely of his recent allies, but Graham and
his adherents were not backward in giving him
to understand that he owed his position to them,
and they were inclined to put themselves on an
equality with him. This did not comport with
his ideas of the dignity of his office. To be
hailed by some rough Inickskin-clad trapper

with "Ho 1 Bautista ; come here, I want to speak
with you," was an afifront to his pride that the
governor of the two Californias could not quiet-
ly pass over, and besides, like all of his country-
men, he disliked foreigners.

There were rumors of another revolution, and
it was not difficult to persuade Alvarado that the
foreigners were plotting to revolutionize Cali-
fornia. Mexico had recently lost Texas, and
the same class of "malditos extranjeros" (wicked
strangers) were invading California, and would
ultimately possess themselves of the country.
-Accordingly, secret orders were sent through-
out the department to arrest and imprison all
foreigners. Over one hundred men of dififer-
ent nationalities were arrested, principally
American and English. Of these forty-seven
were shipped to San Bias, and from there
marched overland to Tepic, where they were
imprisoned for several months. Through the
efforts of the British consul, Barron, they were
released. Castro, who had accompanied the
prisoners to Mexico to prefer charges against
them, was placed under arrest and afterwards
tried by court-martial, but was acquitted. He
had been acting under orders from his superiors.
After an absence of over a year twenty of the
exiles landed at Monterey on their return from
Mexico. Robinson, who saw them land, says:
"They returned neatly dressed, armed with rifles
and swords, and looking in nnich better condi-
tion than when they were sent away, or prob-
ably than they had ever looked in their lives
before." The Mexican government had been
compelled to pay them damages for their arrest
and imprisonment and to return them to Cali-
fornia. Graham, the reputed leader of the for-
eigners, was the owner of a distillery near Santa
Cruz, and had gathered a number of hard char-
acters around him. It would have been no loss
had he never returned.

The only other event of importance during
.Mvarado's term as governor was the capture of
Monterey by Conunodore Ap Catesby Jones,
of the United States navy. This event happened
after .Mvarado's successor, Micheltorena, had
landed in California, but before the government
had been formally turned over to him.

Tin- following extract from the diary of a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

pioneer and former resident of Los Angeles
who was an eye-witness of the affair, gives a
good description of the capture :

"Monterey, Oct. 19, 1842. — At 2 p. ni. the
United States man-of-war 'United States,' Com-
modore Ap Catesby Jones, came to anchor close
alongside and inshore of all the ships in port.
About 3 p. m. Captain Armstrong came ashore,
accompanied by an interpreter, and went direct
to the governor's house, where he had a private
conversation with him, which proved to be a
demand for the surrender of the entire coast of
California, Upper and Lower, to the United
States government. \Mien he was about to go
on board he gave three or four copies of a proc-
lamation to the inhabitants of the two Califor-
nias, assuring them of the protection of their
lives, persons and property. In his notice to the
governor (Alvarado) he gave him only until the
following morning at 9 a. m. to decide. If he
received no answer, then he would fire upon the
town."

"I remained on shore that night and went
down to the governor's, with Mr. Larkin and
Mr. Eagle. The governor had had some idea of
nmning away and leaving Monterey to its fate,
but was told by Mr. Spence that he should not
go, and finally he resolved to await the result.
At 12 at night some persons were sent on board
the "United States" who had been appointed
by the governor to meet the commodore and
arrange the terms of the surrender. Next morn-
ing at half-past ten o'clock about 100 sailors and
50 marines disembarked. The sailors marched
up from the shore and took possession of the
fort. The American colors were hoisted. The
"United States" fired a salute of thirteen guns ; it
was returned by the fort, which fired twenty-
six guns. The marines in the mean time had
marched up to the government house. The of-
ficers and soldiers of the California government
were discharged and their guns and other arms
taken possession of and carried to the fort. The
stars and stripes now wave over us. Long may
they wave here in California I"

"Oct. 2 1 St, 4 p. m. — Flags were again
changed, the vessels were released, and all was
quiet again. The commodore had received later
news by some Mexican newspapers."

Commodore Jones had been stationed at Cal-
lao with a squadron of four vessels. An English
fleet was also there, and a French fleet was
cruising in the Pacific. Both these were sup-
posed to have designs on California. Jones
learned that the English admiral had received
orders to sail next day. Surmising that his des-
tination might be California, he slipped out of
the harbor the night before and crowded all sail
to reach C;i]ifnniin before the English admiral.

The loss of Texas, and the constant influx of
immigrants and adventurers from the United
States into California, had embittered the Mex-
ican government more and more against for-
eigners. Manuel Micheltorena, who had served
under Santa Anna in the Texan war, was ap-
pointed, January 19, 1842, comandante-general
inspector and gobernador propietario of the
Californias.

Santa Anna was president of the Mexican
Republic. His experience with Americans in
Texas during the Texan war of independence,
in 1836-37, had determined him to use every ef-
fort to prevent California from sharing the falc
of Texas.

Micheltorena, the newly-appointed governor,
vvas instructed to take with him sufficient force
to check the ingress of Americans. He recruit-
ed a force of 350 men, principally convicts en-
listed from the prisons of Mexico. His army of
thieves and ragamuffins landed at San Diego in
August, 1842.

Robinson, who was at San Diego when one
of the vessels conveying Micheltorena's cholos
(convicts) landed, thus describes them: "Five
days afterward the brig Chato arrived with
ninety soldiers and their families. I saw them
land, and to me they presented a state of
wretchedness and misery unequaled. Not one
individual among them possessed a jacket or
pantaloons, but, naked, and like the savage In-
dians, they concealed their nudity with dirty,
miserable blankets. The females were not much
better ofif, for the scantiness of their mean ap-
parel was too apparent for modest observers.
They appeared like convicts, and, indeed, the
greater portion of them had been charged with
crime, either of murder or theft."

Micheltorena drilled his Falstaffiian army at
San Diego for several weeks and then began hi.s
march northward. Los Angeles made great
preparations to receive the new governor. Seven
years had passed since she had been decreed the
capital of the territory, and in all these years
she had been denied her rights by Monterey. A
favorable impression on the new governor
might induce him to make the ciudad his capital.
The national fiesta of September 16 was post-
poned until the arrival of the governor. The
best house in the town was secured for him and
his stafT. A grand ball was projected and the
city illuminated the night of his arrival. A
camp was established down by the river and the
cholos, who in the mean time had been given
white linen uniforms, were put through the drill
and the manual of arms. They were incorrigible
thieves, and stole for the very pleasure of steal-
ing. They robbed the hen roosts, the orchards,
the vincvards and the vcRvtable g.nrdons of the

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

citizens. To the Angeleiios the glory of their
city as the capital of the territory faded in the
presence of their empty chicken coops and
plundered orchards. They longed to speed the
departure of their now unwelcome guests. After
a stay of a month in the city, Micheltorena and
his army took up their line of march north-
ward. He had reached a point about twenty
miles north of San Fernando, when, on the
night of the 24th of October, a messenger
aroused him from his slumbers with the news
that the capital had been captured by the Ameri-
cans. Alicheltorena seized the occasion to make
])olitical capital for himself with the home gov-
ernment. He spent the remainder of the night
in fulminating proclamations against the in-
vaders fiercer than the thunderbolts of Jove,
copies of which were dispatched post haste to
Mexico. He even wished himself a thunderbolt
"that he might fly over intervening space and
annihilate tlie invaders." Then, with his own
courage and doubtless that of his brave cholos
aroused to the highest pitch, instead of rushing
on the invaders he and his army fled back to
San Fernando, where, afraid to advance or re-
treat, he halted until news reached him tiiat
Commodore Jones had restored Monterey to the
Californians. Then his valor reached the boil-
ing point. He boldly marched to Los Angeles,
established his headquarters in the city and
awaited the coming of Commodore Jones and
his ofihcers from Monterey.

On the 19th of January, 1843, Commodore
Jones and his stafif came to Los Angeles to meet
the governor. At the famous conference in the
Falacio de Don Abel, ]\Iicheltorena presented
his Articles of Convention. Among other ridic-
ulous demands were the following: ".\rticle
\ I. Mr. Thomas Ap C. Jones will deliver 1,500
complete infantry uniforms to replace those of
nearly one-half of the Mexican force, which have
been ruined in the violent march and the con-
tinued rains while they were on their way to
recover the port thus invaded." "Article VII.
Jones to pay $15,000 into the national treasury
for expenses incurred from the general alarm;
also a complete set of musical instruments in
lilace of those ruined on this occasion."* Judg-
ing from Robinson's description of the dress of
Alichcltorena's cholos it is doubtful whether
there was an entire uniform among them.

"The commodore's first impulse," writes a
member of his staff, "was to return the papers
without connnent and to refuse further commu-
nication with a man who could have the efifront-
ory to trump up such charges as those for which
indenmification was claimed." The commodore

if r.-ilifomia Vnl. IV.

on reflection put aside his personal feelings, and
met the governor at the grand ball in Sanchez
Hall held in honor of the occasion. The ball was
a brilliant afifair, "the dancing ceased only with
the rising of the sun next morning." The com-
modore returned the articles without his signa-
ture. The governor did not again refer to his
demands. Next morning, January 21, 1843,
Jones and his officers took their departure from
the city "amidst the beating of drums, the firing
of cannon and the ringing of bells, saluted by
the general and his wife from the door of their
quarters." On the 31st of December Michel-
torena had taken the oath of office in Sanchez
Hall, which stood on the east side of the plaza.
Salutes were fired, the bells were rung and the
city was illuminated for three evenings. For the
second time a governor had been inaugurated
in Los Angeles.

Micheltorena and his cholo army remained in
Los Angeles about eight months. The Angel-
eiios had all the capital they cared for. They
were perfectly willing to have the governor and
his army take up their residence in Monterey.
The cholos had devoured the country like an
army of chapules (locusts) and were willing to
move on. Monterey would no doubt ' have
gladly transferred what right she had to the
capital if at the same time she could have trans-
ferred to her old rival, Los Angeles, Michel-
torena's cholos. Their pilfering was largely en-
forced by their necessities. They received little
or no pay, and they often had to steal or starve.
The leading native Californians still entertained
their old dislike to "^Mexican dictators" and the
retinue of 300 chicken thieves tha: accompanied
the last dictator intensified their hatred.

Micheltorena, while not a model governor,
had many good qualities and was generally liked
by the better class of foreign residents. He
made an earnest effort to establish a system of
public education in the territory. Schools were
established in all the principal towns, and terri-
torial aid from the public funds to the amount of
$500 each was given them. The school at Los
Angeles had over one hundred pupils in attend-
ance. His worst fault was a disposition to med-
dle in local affairs. He was unreliable and not
careful to keep his agreements. He might have
succeeded in giving California a stable govern-
ment had it not been for the antipathy to his
cholo soldiers and the old feud between the
"hijos del pais" and the Mexican dictators.

These two proved his undoing. The native
sons under .\lvarado and Castro rose in rebel-
lion. In November, 1844. a revolution was in-
augurated at Santa Clara. The governor
marched with an army of 150 men against the
rebel forces numbering about 200. They met

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

at a place called the Laguna de Alvires. A
treaty was signed in which Micheltorena agreed
to ship his cholos back to Mexico.

This treaty the governor deliberately broke.
He then intrigued with Capt. John A. Sutter of
New Helvetia and Isaac Graham to obtain as-
sistance to crush the rebels. January 9, 1845,
Micheltorena and Sutter formed a junction of
their forces at Salinas — their united commands
numbering about 500 men. They marched
against the rebels to crush them. But the rebels
did not wait to be crushed. Alvarado and Castro,
with about 90 men, started for Los Angeles,
and those left behind scattered to their homes.
Alvarado and his men reached Los Angeles on
the night of January 20, 1845. The garrison
stationed at the curate's house was surprised
and captured. One man was killed and several
wounded. Lieut. Medina, of Micheltorena's
army, was the commander of the pueblo troops.
Alvarado's army encamped on the plaza and he
and Castro set to work to revolutionize the old
pueblo. The leading Angeleiios had no great
love for Juan Bautista, and did not readily fall
into his schemes. They had not forgotten their
enforced detention in A'allejo's Bastile during
the Civil war. An extraordinary session of the
ayuntamiento was called January 21. Alvarado
and Castro were present and made eloquent ap-
peals. The records say : "The Ayuntamiento
listened, and after a short interval of silence and
meditation decided to notify the senior member
of the Departmental Assembly of Don Alvarado
and Castro's wishes."

They were more successful with the Pico
Brothers. Pio Pico was senior vocal, and in
case Micheltorena was deposed, he, by virtue
of his office, would become governor. Through
the influence of the Picos the revolution gained
ground. The most potent influence in spread-
ing the revolt was the fear of Micheltorena's
cholos. Should the town be captured by them
jt certainly would be looted. The departmental
assembly was called together. A peace com-
mission was sent to meet Micheltorena, who was
leisurely marching southward, and intercede
with him to give up his proposed invasion of
the south. He refused. Then the assembly pro-
nounced him a traitor, deposed him by vote and
appointed Pio Pico governor. Recruiting went
on rapidly. Hundreds of saddle horses were
contributed, "old rusty guns were repaired,
hacked swords sharpened, rude lances manu-
factured" and cartridges made for the old iron
cannon, that now stand guard at the courthouse.
Some fifty foreigners of the south joined Alva-
rado's army ; not that they had much interest in
the revolution, but to protect their property
against the lapacicms invaders — the cholos, and

Sutter's Indians,* who were as much dreaded as
the cholos. On the 19th of February, Michel-
torena reached the Encinos, and the Angelenian
army marched out through Cahuenga Pass to
meet him. On the 20th the two armies met on
the southern edge of the San Fernando valley,
about 15 miles from Los Angeles. Each army
numbered about 400 men. Micheltorena had
tliree pieces of artillery, and Castro two. They
opened on each other at long range and seem
to have fought the battle throughout at very
long range. A mustang or a mule — authorities
differ — was killed.

Wilson, Workman and AIcKinlcy, of Castro's
army, decided to induce the Americans on the
other side, many of whom were their personal
friends, to abandon Micheltorena. Passing up
a ravine they succeeded in attracting the atten-
tion of some of them by means of a white flag.
Gantt, Hensley and Bidwell joined them in the
ravine. The situation was discussed and the
Americans of Micheltorena's army agreed to de-
sert him if Pico would protect them in their
land grants. Wilson, in his account of the bat-
tle,! says : "I knew, and so did Pico, that these
land questions were the point with those young
.\mericans. Before I started on my journey or
embassy, Pico was sent for; on his arrival
among us I, in a few words, explained to him
what the party had advanced." "Gentlemen,"
said he, "are any of you citizens of Mexico?"
They answered "No." "Then your title deeds
given you by Micheltorena are not worth the
paper they are written on, and he knew it well
when he gave them to you ; but if you will aban-
don his cause I will give you my word of honor
as a gentleman and Don Benito Wilson and Don
Juan \\'orkman to carry out what I promise —
that I will protect each one of you in the land
that you now hold, and when you become citi-
zens of Mexico I will issue you the proper
titles." They said that was all they asked, and
promised not to fire a gun against us. They
also asked not to be required to fight on our
side, which was agreed to.

"Micheltorena discovered (how I do not
know) that his Americans had ai)aiuloned him.
About an hour afterwards he raised his camp
and flanked us by going further into the valley
towards San Fernando, then marching as
though he intended to come around the bend of
the river to the city. The Californians and we
foreigners at once broke up our camp and came

*Sutter had under his command a company of In-
dians. He had drilled these in the use of firearms.
The employing of these savages by Micheltorena was
hitterlv resented by the Californians'.

tl'iil). Historical .Society of Southern California.
\'m1. X

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

hack through the Cahuenga Pass, marched
through the gap into the Feliz ranch, on the Los
Angeles river, till we came into close proximity
to Micheltorena's camp. It was now night, as
it was dark when we broke up our camp. Here
we waited for daylight, and some of our men
commenced maneuvering for a fight with the
enemy. A few cannon shots were fired, when a
white flag was discovered flying from Michel-
torena's front. The whole matter then went into
the hands of negotiators appointed by both par-
ties and the terms of surrender were agreed
upon, one of which was that Micheltorena and
his obnoxious officers and men were to march
hack up the river to the Cahuenga Pass, then
down to the plain to the west of Los Angeles,
the most direct line to San Pedro, and embark
at that point on a vessel then anchored there to
carry them back to Mexico." Sutter was taken
])risoner, and his Indians, after being corralled
loT a time, were sent back to the Sacramento.

The roar of the battle of Cahuenga or "The
Alamo," as it is sometimes called, could be dis-
tinctly heard in Los Angeles, and the people
remaining in the city- were greatly alarmed.
William Heath Davis, in his "Sixty Years in
California," thus describes the alarm in the
town: "Directly to the north of the town was a
high hill" (now known as Mt. Lookout). "As
soon as firing was heard all the people remain-
ing in the town — men, women and children —
ran to the top of this hill. As the wind was
blowing from the north the firing was distinctly
heard, five leagues away, on the battlefield,
throughout the day. All business places in town
were closed. The scene on the hill was a re-
markable one — women and children, with
crosses in their hands, kneeling and praying to
the saints for the safety of their fathers, brothers,
sons, husbands, lovers, cousins — that they might
not be killed in the battle ; indifferent to their
persona! appearance, tears streammg from their
eyes, and their hair blown about by the wind,
which had increased to quite a breeze. Don
Abel Stearns, myself and others tried to calm
and pacify them, assuring them that there was
probably no danger ; somewhat against our con-
victions, it is true, judging from what we heard
of the firing and from our knowledge of Michel-
torena's disciplined force, his battery, and the
riflemen he had with him. During the day the
scene on the hill continued. The night that fol-
lowed was a gloomy one, caused by the lamenta-
tions of the women and children."

Davis, who was supercargo on the "Don
Quixote," the vessel on which Micheltorena and
his soldiers were shipped to Mexico, claims that
the general "had ordered his command not to
injure the Californians in the force opposed to

him, but to fire over their heads, as he had no
desire to kill them."

Another Mexican-born governor had been de-
posed and deported — gone to join his fellows —
\'ictoria, Chico and Gutierrez. In accordance
with the treaty of Cahuenga and by virtue of his
rank as senior member of the Departmental
Assembly, Pio Pico became governor. The hijos
del pais were once more in the ascendency. Jose
Castro was made comandante-general. Alva-
rado was given charge of the custom house at
Monterey, and Jose Antonio Carrillo was ap-
pointed commander of the military district of the
south. Los Angeles was made the capital,
although the archives and the treasury remained
in Monterey. The revolution apparently had
been a success. In the proceedings of the Los
Angeles ayuntamiento, March i, 1845, appears
this record : "The agreements entered into at
Cahuenga between General Emanuel Michel-
torena and Lieut. -Col. Jose Castro were then
read and as they contain a happy termination
of affairs in favor of the government this Illus-
trious Body listened with satisfaction and so
answered the communication."

The people joined with the ayuntamiento in
expressing their "satisfaction" that a "happy
termination" had been reached of the political
disturbances that had distracted the country.
But the end was not yet. Pico did his best to
conciliate the conflicting elements, but the old
sectional jealousies that had divided the people
of the territory would crop out. Jose Antonio
Carrillo, the Machiaveli of the south, hated
Castro and Alvarado, and was jealous of Pico's
good fortune. He was the superior of any of
them in ability, but made himself unpopular by
his intrigues and his sarcastic speech. When
Castro and Alvarado came south to raise the
standard of revolt they tried to win him over.
He did assist them. He was willing enough to
plot against Micheltorena, but after the over-
throw of the Mexican he was equally ready to
plot against Pico and Castro. In the summer
of 1845 he was implicated in a plot to depose
Pico, who, by the way, was his brother-in-law.
Pico placed him and two of his fellow conspir-
ators, Serbulo and Hilario \'arela, under arrest.
Carrillo and Hilario \"arela were shipped to
Mazatlarrto be tried for their misdeeds. Serbulo
Varela made his escape from prison. The two
exiles returned early in 1846 unpunished and
ready for new plots..

Pico was appointed "Gobernador Propie-
tario," or Constitutional Governor of California,
September 3, 1845, ^Y President Herrera. The
Supreme Government of Mexico never seemed
to take offense or harbor resentment against the
Californians for deposing and sending home a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

governor. As the officials of the Supreme
Government usually obtained office by revolu-
tion, they no doubt had a fellow feeling for the
revolting Californians. When Micheltorena re-
turned to Mexico he was coldly received and a
commissioner was sent to Pico with dispatches
virtually approving all that had been done.

Castro, too, gave Pico a great deal of uneasi-
ness. He ignored the governor and managed
the military affairs of the territory to suit him-
self. His headquarters were at Monterey and
doubtless he had the sympathy if not the en-
couragement of the people of the north in his
course. But the cause of the greatest uneasi-
ness was the increasing immigration from the
United States. A stream of immigrants from
the western states, increasing each year, poured
down the Sierra Nevadas and spread over the
rich valleys of California. The Californians rec-
ognized that through the advent of these "for-
eign adventurers," as they were called, the
"manifest destiny" of California was to be ab-
sorbed by the United States. Alvarado had ap-

pealed to Alexico for men and arms and had
been answered by the arrival of Micheltorena
and his cholos. Pico appealed and for a time
the Californians were cheered by the prospect
r)f aid. In the summer of 1845 ^ force of 600
veteran soldiers, under conmiand of Colonel
Iniestra, reached Acapulco, where ships were ly-
ing to take them to California, hut a revolution
broke out in Mexico and the troops destined for
the defense of California were used to overthrow
President Herrera and to seat Paredes. Cali-
fornia was left to work out her own destiny un-
aided or drift with the tide — and she drifted.

In the early months of 1846 there was a rapid
succession of important events in her history,
each in passing bearing her near and nearer to
a manifest destiny — the downfall of Mexican
domination in California. These will be pre-
sented fully in the chapter on the Acquisition of
California by the United States. But before
taking up these w-e will turn aside to review life
in California in the olden time under Spanish
and Mexican rule.

CHAPTER XIV.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT— MUY ILUSTRE AYUNTAMIENTO.

HOW were the municipalities or town cor-
porations in California governed under
Spanish and Mexican rule? Very few,
1 presume, of its present inhabitants have ex-
amined into the local governmental systems
prevailing before it became a possession of the
United States ; and yet this is an important ques-
tion. The original titles to many a broad acre
of our fertile valleys and to many a league of
the pueblo lands of some of our cities date away
back to the time when Spanish kmgs or ]\Iexi-
can presidents swayed the destinies of Cali-
fornia.

There is a vague impression in the minds of
many, derived, perhaps, from Dana's "Two
Years Before the Mast" and kindred works or
from tales and reminiscences of pioneers who
came here after the discovery of gold, that Cali-
fornia had very little government in the olden
days; that it was largely given over to anarchy
and revolution ; that life was unsafe in it and
murder a common occurrence. Such impres-
sions arc as false as they are unjust. There
were but comparatively few capital crimes com-
mitted in California under Spanish domination
or under Mexican rule.

The era of crime in California began with the
discovery of gold. There were no Joaquin Mur-

retas or Tiburcio Vasquezes before the "days of
gold," the days of "49." It is true, there were
a number of revolutions during the Alexican
regime, and California had a surplus of gover-
nors at times, but these revolutions were for the
most part bloodless afifairs. In the half a dozen
or more political uprisings occurring in the fif-
teen years preceding the American conquest and
resulting in four so-called battles, there were in
all but three men killed and five or six wounded.

While there were political disturbances in the
territory and several governors were deposed by
force and shipped back to Mexico whence they
came, the numicipal governments were well ad-
ministered. I doubt whether the municipalities
of Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara
have ever been governed better or more eco-
nomically under American rule than they were
during tiie years that their Most Illustrious
Ayuntamientos controlled the civil afTairs of
these towns.

There were three ayuntamientos or municipal
councils in Southern California at the time of the
.\merican conquest- — those of Los Angeles, San
Diego and Santa Barbara. The latter two were
of recent origin. The records of the Los An-
geles ayuntamiento from 1828 down to the
American occupation of California have been

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

preserved. They furnish us the best illustration
that we have of the workings of a municipal
government under Mexican rule. Therefore in
giving a sketch of local government in Cali-
fornia under Spain and Mexico I shall draw my
information largely from them.

Los Angeles had an ayuntamiento, under
Spanish rule, organized in the first years of her
existence, but it had very little power. The
ayuntamiento at first consisted of an alcalde
(mayor) and two regidores (councilmen). Over
them was a quasi-military officer, called a com-
isionado, a sort of petty dictator or military des-
pot, who, when occasion required, or his inclina-
tion moved him, embodied within himself all
three departments of the government — judiciary,
legislative and executive. After Mexico became
a republic the office of comisionado was
abolished. The membership of the Most
Illustrious Ayuntamiento of Los Angeles
was gradually increased, until, at the height
of its power in the '30s, it consisted
of a first alcalde, a second alcalde, six
regidores (councilmen), a secretary and a sin-
dico, or syndic, as the pueblo archives have it.
The sindico seems to have been a general utility
man. He acted as city attorney, tax and license
collector and treasurer. The alcalde was presi-
dent of the council, and acted as judge of the
first instance and as mayor. The second alcalde
took the place of the first when that offi-
cer was ill or absent ; or, as sometimes happened,
when he was a political prisoner in durance vile.
The regidores were numbered from one to six
and took rank according to number. The secre-
tary was an important officer; he kept the rec-
ords and was the only paid member except the
sindico, who received a commission on his col-
lections.

.\t the beginning of the year 1840 the ayunta-
mientos in California were abolished by a decree
of the Mexican congress, none of the towns hav-
ing the population required by the decree. In
January, 1844, the ayuntamiento of Los Angeles
was re-established. During the abolition of the
municipal councils the towns were governed by
prefects and justices of the peace, and the special
laws, or ordinances, were enacted by the depart-
mental assembly. Much valuable local history
was lost by the discontinuance of the ayunta-
mientos from 1840 to 1844. The records of the
ayuntamientos are rich in historical material.

The jurisdiction of the ayuntamiento of Los
Angeles, after the secularization of the missions,
extended from the southern limits of San Juan
Capistrano to and including San Fernando on
the north and eastward to the San Bernardino
mountains, extending over an area now com-
prised in' four counties and covering a territory

as large as the state of Massachusetts. Its au-
thority was as extensive as its jurisdicliun. It
granted town lots and reconmiended to the gov-
ernor grants of lands from the public domain.
In addition to passing ordinances for the gov-
ernment of the pueblo, its members sometimes
acted as executive officers to enforce them. It
contained within itself the powers of a board of
health, a board of education, a police commis-
sion and a street department. During the Civil
war between Northern and Southern California
in 1837-38, it raised and equipped an army and
assumed the right to govern the southern half of
the territory. The members served without pay,
but if a member was absent from a meeting
without a good excuse he was fined $3. The
sessions were conducted with great dignity and
decorum. The members were required to attend
their public functions "attired in black apparel
so as to add solemnity to the meetings."

The ayuntamiento was spoken of as "Most
Illustrious," in the same sense that we speak of
the Honorable City Council, but it was a much
more dignified body than a city council. Tak-
ing the oath of office was a solemn and impres-
sive affair. The junior regidor and the secretary
introduced the member to be sworn. "When,"
the rules say, "he shall kneel before a crucifix
placed on a table or dais, with his right hand on
the Holy Bible, then all the members of the
ayuntamiento shall rise and remain standing
with bowed heads while the secretary reads the
form of oath prescribed by law, and on the mem-
ber saying, T swear to do,' etc., the president
will answer, 'If thou so doest God will reward
thee ; if thou dost not, may He call thee to ac-
count.' "

As there was no pay in the office, and its
duties were numerous and onerous, tliere was
not a large crop of aspirants for councilmen in
those days, and the office usually sought the
man. It might be added, that when it caught
the right man it was loath to let go of him.

The tribulations that befell Francisco Pantoja
well illustrate the difficulty of resigning in the
days when office sought the man ; not the man
the office. Pantoja was elected fourth regidor
of the ayuntamiento of 1837. In those days wild
horses were very numerous; when the pasture
in the foothills was exhausted they came down
into the valleys and ate up the feed needed for
the cattle. On this account, and because most
of these wild horses were worthless, the ranch-
eros slaughtered them. A large and strong cor-
ral was built, with wings extending out on the
right and left from the main entrance. When
the corral was completed a day was set for a
wild horse drive. The bands were rounded up
and driven into the corral. The pick of the ca-

IIS'KJKICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

balladas were lassoed and taken out to be broken
to the saddle and the refuse of the bands killed.
The \'ejars had obtained permission from the
ayuntamiento to build a corral between the Cer-
ritos and the Salinas for the purpose of corral-
ing wild horses for slaughter; and Tomas Tala-
mantes made a similar request to build a corral
on the Sierra San Pedro. Permission was grant-
ed, the corrals were built, and a time was ap-
pointed for a wild horse rodeo.

Pantoja, being something of a sport, peti-
tioned his fellow regidores for a twenty days'
leave of absence to join in the wild horse chase.
After considerable debate leave was granted him.
A wild horse chase was wild sport and danger-
ous, too. Somebody was sure to get hurt, and
Pantoja. in this one, was one of the unfortunates.
When his twenty days' leave of absence was up
Pantoja did not return to his duties of regidor,
but, instead, sent his resignation on the plea of
illness. The president of the ayuntamiento re-
fused to accept his resignation and appointed a
committee to hold an investigation on his phys-
ical condition. There were no physicians in Los
Angeles then, so the committee took along San-
tiago McKinley, a canny Scotch merchant, who
was reputed to have some knowledge of surgery.
The committee and the improvised surgeon held
an ante-mortem inquest on what remained of
Pantoja. The committee reported to the council
that he was a physical wreck ; that he could not
mount a horse, nor ride one when mounted. A
native Californian who had reached such a state
of physical dilapidation that he could not mount
a horse might well be excused from official
duties. But there was danger of establishing a
precedent. The ayuntamiento heard the report,
pondered over it, and then sent it and the resig-
nation to the governor. He took them under
advisement, and, after a long delay, accepted
the resignation. In the meantime Pantoja's term
had expired by limitation and he had recovered
from his fall.

Notwithstanding the great dignity and for-
mality of the old-time regidores, they were not
like some of our modern councilmen — above
seeking advice of their constituents ; nor did
they assume superior airs as some of our par-
venu statesmen do. There was, in their legisla-
tive system, an upper house, or court of last ap-
peal, and that was the people themselves. When
there was a deadlock in their council, or when
some question of great importance to the com-
munity came before them and they were divided
as to what was best to do, or when some crafty
politician was attempting to sway their decision
so as to obtain personal gain at the expense of
the community, then the alarma publico, or the
''pu!)lic alarm," was sounded by the beating of

the long roll on the drum, and the citizens were
summoned to the hall of sessions, and anyone
hearing the alarm and not heeding it was fined
$3. When the citizens were convened the presi-
dent of the ayuntamiento, speaking in a loud
voice, stated the question and the people were
given "public speech." Everyone had an op-
portunity to make a speech. Rivers of eloquence
flowed, and, when all who wished to speak had
had their say, the question was decided by a
show of hands. The majority ruled, and all went
home happy to think the country was safe and
they had helped save it.

Some of the ordinances for the government of
Los Angeles, passed by the old regidores, were
quaint and amusing, and illustrate the primitive
modes of life and thought sixty and seventy
years ago.

The regidores were particularly severe on the
idle and improvident. The "Wearv Willies" of
that day were compelled to tramp very much as
they are to-day. Ordinance No. 4, adopted Jan-
uary 28, 1838, reads : "Every person not having
any apparent occupation in this city, or its juris-
diction, is hereby ordered to look for work
within three days, counting from the day this
ordinance is published ; if not complied with he
will be fined $2 for the first offense, $4 for the
second offense, and will be given compulsory
work for the third."

If the tramp only kept looking for work, but
was careful not to find it, it seems, from the
reading of the ordinance, there could be no of-
fense, and consequently no fines nor compulsory
work for the "Weary ^X'illie."

The ayuntamiento of 1844 passed this ordi-
nance : "Article 2. All persons without occu-
pation or known manner of living, shall be
deemed to come luider the law of vagabonds,
and shall be punished as the law dictates."

The ayuntamiento ordered a census of the
vagabonds. The census report showed 22 vaga-
bonds-— eight genuine vags and fourteen ordi-
nary ones. It is to be regretted that regidores
did not define the difference between a genuine
and an ordinary vagabond.

The regidores regulated the social conditions
of the people, ■'.\rticle 19. A license of $2 shall
be paid for all dances except marriage dances,
for which permission shall be obtained from the
judges of the city."

Here is a trades union regulation more than a
half century old :

"Article 7. .\11 grocery, clothing and liquor
houses are prohibited from employing any class
of servants foreign to the business without pre-
vious verbal or written stipulations from their
former employers. .Xnyone acting contrary to

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the above shall forfeit all right to claim I'c-im-
bursement,"

Occasionally the regidores had lists of impe-
cunious debtors and dead beats made out and
published, and the merchants were warned not
to give these fellows credit.

Sometimes the ayimtamicnto promulgated le-
gal restrictions against the pastime and pleasures
of the people that seem to be almost as austere
as were the old blue laws of Connecticut.

Ordinance 5 (passed January 20, 1838): "All
individuals serenading promiscuously around
the streets of the city at night without first hav-
ing obtained permission from the alcalde, will be
fined $1.50 for the first ofTense, $3 for the sec-
ond, and for the third punished according to
law."

Ordinance 6 (same date) : "Every individual
giving a dance at his house, or at any other house,
without first having obtained permission from
the alcalde, will be fined $5 for the first ofifense,
and for the second and third punished according
to law."

What the penalty of "punished according to
law" was the ordinances do not define. It is safe
to say that any serenader who had suffered for a
first and second offense without law, was not
anxious to experience a punishment "according
to law" for the third.

The old pueblo had its periodical smallpox
scares. Then the regidores had to act as a board
of health and enforce their hygienic regulations ;
there were no physicians in the town then. In
1844 the disease became epidemic and the ayun-
tamiento issued a proclamation to the people and
formulated a long list of hygienic rules to be
observed. The object of the proclamation
seemed to be to paint the horrors of the plague
in such vivid colors that the people would be
frightened into observing the council's rules.
The proclamation and the rules were ordered
read by guards at the door of each house and
before the Indian huts. I give a portion of the
proclamation and a few of the rules :

"That destructive power of the Almighty,
which occasionally punishes man for his numer-
ous faults, destroys not only kingdoms, cities
and towns, leaving many persons in orphanage
and devoid of protection, but goes forth with an
exterminating hand and preys upon science, art
and agriculture — this terrible plague threatens
this unfortunate department of the grand Mexi-
can nation, and seems more fearful by reason of
the small population, which cannot fill one-twen-
tieth part of its territory. What would become
of her if this eminently philanthropic ayunta-
miento had not provided a remedy partly to
cotmteract these ills? It would bereave the town

of the amis dedicated to agriculture [the only
industry of the country), which would cease to
be useful, and, in consequence, misery would
prevail among the rest. The present ayunla-
miento is deserving of praise, as it is the first to
take steps beneficial to the community and the
country."

Among the hygienic rules were orders to the
people to refrain from "eating peppers and
spices which stimulate the blood ;" "to wash all
salted meats before using;" "all residents in good
health to bathe and cleanse themselves once in
eight days ;" "to burn sulphur on a hot iron in
their houses for fumigation." "Saloon-keepers
shall not allow gatherings of inebriates in their
saloons, and all travelers on inland roads must
halt at the distance of four leagues from the
towns and wash their clothes."

The alcaldes' powers were as unlimited as
those of the ayuntamiento. They judged all
kinds of cases and settled all manner of disputes.
There were no lawyers to worry the judges and
no juries to subvert justice and common sense
by anomalous verdicts. Sometimes the alcalde
was judge, jury and executioner, all in one. In
the proceedings of the ayuntamiento of Los An-
geles, March 6, 1837, Jose Sepulveda, second al-
calde, informed the members "That the prison-
ers, Juliano and Timoteo, had confessed to the
murder of Ygnacio Ortega, which was deliber-
ated and premeditated." "He had decided to
sentence them to capital punishment and also to
execute them- to-morrow, it being a holiday when
the neighborhood assembles in town. He asked
the members of the Illustrious Ayuntamiento
to express their opinion in the matter, which
they did, and all were of the same opinion. Senor
Sepulveda said he had already solicited the ser-
vices of the Rev. Father at San Gabriel, so that
he may come to-day and administer spiritual
consolation to the prisoners."

At the meeting of the ayuntamiento two weeks
later, March 20,"i837, the record reads : "Second
alcalde, Jose Sepulveda, thanked the members
for acquiescing in his decision to shoot the pris-
oners, Juliano and Timoteo, but after sending
his decision to the governor, he was ordered to
send the prisoners to the general government
to ])e tried according to law by a council of war,
and he had complied with the order." The bluff
old alcalde could see no necessity for trying pris-
oners who had confessed to a deliberate murder:
therefore he proposed to execute them without
a trial.

The prisoners, I infer, were Indians. While
the Indians of the pueblo were virtually slaves to
the ranchcros and vineyardists. they were al-
lowed certain rights and privileges by the ayun-
tamiento, and white men were compelled to re-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

spect thciii. The Indians had been granted a
portion of the pueblo lands near the river for a
rancheria. They presented a petition at one time
to the ayuntamiento, stating that the foreigner,
Juan Domingo (John Sunday), had fenced in
part of their land. The members of the council
examined into the case. They found that John
Sunday was guilty as charged, so they fined
Juan $12 and compelled him to set back his
fence to the line. The Indians were a source of
trouble to the regidores, and there was always
a number of them under sentence for petty mis-
demeanors. They formed the chain gang of the
pueblo. Each regidor had to take his weekly
turn as captain of the chain gang and superin-
tend the work of the prisoners.

The Indian village, down by the river be-
tween what are now First street and Aliso, was
the plague spot of the body politic. Petition
after petition came to the council for the removal
of the Indians. Finally, in 1846, the ayunta-
miento ordered their removal across the river to
the Aguage de Los Avilas (the Spring of the
Avilas) and the site of their former village was
sold to their old-time enemy and persecutor,
John Sunday, the foreigner, for $200, which was
to be expended for the benefit of the Indians.
Gov. Pio Pico borrowed the $200 from the coun-
cil to pay the expenses of raising troops to sup-
press Castro, who, from his headquarters at
Monterey, was supposed to be fomenting an-
other revolution, with the design of making him-
self governor. If Castro had such designs the
Americans frustrated them by promptly taking
possession of the country. Pico and his army
returned to Los Angeles, but the Indians' money
never came back any more.

The last recorded meeting of the ayuntamiento
of Los Angeles under Mexican rule was held
July 4, 1846, and the last recorded act was to
give Juan Domingo a title to the pueblito — the
lands on which the Indian village stood. Could
the irony of fate have a sharper sting? The
Mexican, on the birthday of American liberty,
robbed the Indian of the last acre of his ancestral
lands, and the American robbed the Mexican
that robbed the Indian.

The ayuntamiento was revived in 1847, after
the conquest, but it was not the "Most Illustri-
ous" of former days. The heel of the conqueror
was on the neck of the native, and it is not
strange that the old-time motto, Dios y Libertad
(God and liberty), was sometimes abbreviated
in the later records to "God and etc." The sec-
retary was sure of Dios, but uncertain about
libertad.

The revenues of Los Angeles were small dur-
ing the Mexican era. There was no tax on land,
nnfl the municipal funds were derived principally

from ta.xes on wine and brandy, from fines anil
from licenses of saloons and business houses.
The pueblo lands were sold at the rate of 25 cents
per front vara, or about eight cents per front
foot, for house lots. The city treasury was usu-
ally in a state of financial collapse. Various ex-
pedients for inflating were agitated, but the peo-
ple were opposed to taxation and the plans never
matured.

In 1837, the financial stringency was so press-
ing that the alcalde reported to the ayuntamiento
that he was compelled to take country produce
for fines. He had already received eight colts,
si.x fanegas (about nine bushels) of com and
35 hides. The syndic immediately laid claim
to the colts on his back salary. The alcalde put
in a preferred claim of his own for money ad-
vanced to pay the salary of the secretary, and
besides, he said, he had "boarded the colts."
After considerable discussion the alcalde was
ordered to turn over the colts to the city treas-
urer to be appraised and paid out on claims
against the city. In the meantime it was found
that two of the colts had run away and the re-
maining six had demonetized the corn by eating-
it up — a contraction of the currency that ex-
ceeded in heinousness the "crime of '/S"

The municipal revenue between 1835 and 1845
never exceeded $1,000 in any one year, and some
years it fell as low as $500 a year. There were
but few salaried oflices, and the pay of the officials
was small. The secretary of the ayuntamiento
received from $30 to $40 a month: the school-
master was paid $15 a month while school kept,
but as the vacations greatly exceeded in length
the school terms, his compensation was not
munificent. The alcaldes, regidores and jueces
del campos (judges of the plains) took their pay
in honors, and honors, it might be said, were not
always easy. The church expenses were paid
out of the municipal funds, and these usually ex-
ceeded the amount paid out for schools. The
people were more spiritually inclined than intel-
lectually.

The form of electing city officers was similar
to our plan of electing a president and vice-
president. A primary election was held to choose
electors ; these electors met and elected the city
officials. No elector could vote for himself. As
but few of the voters could read or write, the
voting at the primary election was by viva voce,
and at the secondary election by ballot. The
district was divided into blocks or precincts, and
a conmiissioner or judge of election appointed
for each block. The polls were usually held
under the portico or porch of some centrally
located house. Judge of the election was not a
coveted office, and those eligible to the office
(persons who could read and write) often tried

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ti_i be excused from serving; but, as in Pantoja's
case, the office usually refused to let go of the
man.

Don Manuel Requena was appointed judge of
a certain district. He sent in his resignation on
the plea of sickness. The aj'untamiento was
about to accept it when some one reported that
Don Manuel was engaged in pruning his vine-
yard, whereupon a committee of investigation
was appointed, with Juan Temple, merchant, as
medical expert. The committee and the inpro-
vised doctor examined Don Manuel, and re-
ported that his indisposition did not prevent him
from pruning, but would incapacitate him from
serving as judge of the election. The mental
strain of a primary was more debilitating than
the physical strain of pruning. The right of elec-
tive franchise was not very highly prized by the
common people. In December, 1844, the pri-
mary election went by default because no one
voted.

The office of jueces del campos, or judges of
the plains, outlived the Mexican era and was

continued for a dozen years at least after llie
American conquest, and was abolished, or rather
fell into decadence, when cattle-raising ceased
to be the prevailing industry. The duties of the
judges were to hold rodeos (cattle gatherings)
and recojedas (horse gatherings) throughout
the district ; to settle all disputes and see that
justice was done between owners of stock.

From 1839 to 1846 the office of prefect exist-
ed. There were two in the territory, one for
northern California and one for the southern
district. The prefect was a sort of sub or assist-
ant governor. He was appointed by the gov-
ernor with the approbation of the departmental
assembly. All petitions for land and all appeals
from the decisions of the alcaldes were passed
upon by him before they were submitted to the
governor for final decisions. He had no author-
ity to make a final decision, but his opinions had
weight with the governor in determining the
disposal of a question. The residence of the pre-
fect for the southern district was Los Angeles.

CHAPTER XV.

THE HOMES AND HOME LIFE OF CALIFORNIANS IN THE ADOBE AGE.

CITIES in their growth and development
pass through distinctive ages in the kind
of material of which they are built. Most
of the cities of the United States began their
existence in the wooden age, and have pro-
gressed successively through the brick and stone
age, the iron age and are now entering upon
the steel age. The cities of the extreme south-
west— those of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and
Southern California — like ancient Babylon and
imperial Rome — began their existence in the
clay or adobe age. It took California three-
quarters of a century to emerge from the adobe
age. At the time of its final conquest by the
United States troops (January 10, 1847) there
was not within its limits (if I am rightly in-
formed) a building built of any other material
than adobe, or sun dried brick.

In the adobe age every man was his own arch-
itect and master builder. He had no choice of
material, or, rather, with his ease-loving disposi-
tion, he chose that which was most easily ob-
tained, and that was the tough black clay out of
which the sun dried bricks called "adobes" were
made.

The Indian was the brick-maker and he toiled
for his task-masters like the Hebrew of old for
the Egyptian, making bricks without straw —

and without pay. There were no labor strikes in
the building trades then. The Indian was the
builder as well as the brick-maker and he did
not know how to strike for higher wages, for the
very good reason that he received no wages.
He took his pittance in food and aguardiente,
the latter of which often brought him to enforced
service in the chain gang. The adobe bricks
were molded into form and set up to dry.
Through the long summer days they baked in
the hot sun, first on one side, then on the other ;
and when dried through they were laid in the
wall with mud mortar. Then the walls had to
dry, and dry perhaps through another summer
before the house was habitable.

^^'hen a new house was needed — and a house
was not built in the adobe age until there was
urgent need for it — the builder selected a site
and applied to the ayuntamiento, if a resident
of a town, for a grant of a piece of the pueblo
lands. If no one had a prior claim to the lot he
asked for, he was granted it. If he did not build
a house on it within a given time — usually a
year from the time the grant was made — any
citizen could denounce or file on the property
and with permission of the ayuntamiento take
possession of it ; but the council was lenient and
almost anv excuse secured an extension.

HISTORICAL AND r.IOGRAPHICAL RECORD,

In the ailobc age every man owned his own
house. No houses were built for rent nor for
sale on speculation. The real estate agent was
unknown. There were no hotels nor lodging
houses. When travelers or strangers paid a visit
to one of the old pueblos they were entertained
at private houses, or if no one opened his doors
to them they camped out or moved on to the
nearest mission, where they were sure of a
night's lodging.

The architecture of the adobe age had no
freaks or fads in it. Like the laws of the
Medes and Persians it altered not. There was,
with but very few exceptions, but one style of
house — the square walled, flat roofed, one story
structure — looking, as a writer of early time's
says : "Like so many brick kilns ready for the
burning." Although there were picturesque
homes in California under the Mexican regime,
and the quaint mission buildings of the Spanish
era were massive and imposing, yet the average
town house of the native Californian, with its
clay-colored adobe walls, its flat asphaltum-cov-
ered roof, its ground floor, its rawhide door and
its wooden or iron barred windows, was as de-
void of beauty without as it was of comfort and
convenience within.

The adobe age was not an aesthetic age. The
old pueblos were homely almost to ugliness.
The clay-colored houses that marked the lines
of the crooked and irregular streets were, with-
out, gloomy and uninviting. There was no glass
in the windows. There were no lawns in front,
no sidewalks, and no shade trees. The streets
were ungraded and unsprinkled and when the
dashing caballeros used them for race courses,
dense clouds of yellow dust enveloped the
houses.

There were no slaughter houses, and each
family had its own matanza in close proximity
to the kitchen, and in time the ghastly skulls of
the slaughtered bovines formed veritable gol-
gothas in back yards. The crows acted as scav-
engers and, w-hen not employed in the street
(lejiartment removing garbage, sat on the roofs
of the houses and cawed dismally. They in-
creased and multiplied until the "Plague of the
Crows" compelled the ayuntamiento of Los .An-
geles to ofifer a bounty for their destruction.

Rut even amid these homely surroundings
there were aesthetic souls that dreamed dreams
of beauty and saw visions of better and brighter
things for at least one of the old pueblos.
The famous speech of Regidor Leonardo Cota,
delivered before the ayuntamiento of Los An-
geles nearly sixty years ago, has been preserved
to us in the old pueblo archives. It stamps the
author as a man in advance of the age in which
he lived. It has in it the hopefulness of boom

literature, although somewhat saddened by the
gloom of uncongenial surroundings. "The
time has arrived," said he, "when the city of
Los Angeles begins to figure in the political
world, as it now finds itself the capital of the de-
partment. Now, to complete the necessary work
that, although it is but a small town, it should
proceed to show its beauty, its splendor and its
magnificence in such a manner that when the
traveler visits us he may say, T have seen the
City of the Angels ; I have seen the work of its
street commission, and all these demonstrate
that it is a Mexican paradise.' It is not so under
the present conditions, for the majority of its
buildings present a gloomy, a melancholy aspect,
a dark and forbidding aspect that resembles the
catacombs of Ancient Rome more than the habi-
tations of a free people. I present these propo-
sitions :

"First, that the government be requested to
enact measures so that within four months all
house fronts shall be plastered and whitewashed.

"Second, that all owners be requested to re-
pair the same or open the door for the denun-
ciator. If you adopt and enforce these meas-
ures, I shall feel that I have done something for
my city and my country."

Don Leonardo's eloquent appeal moved the
departmental assembly to enact a law requiring
the plastering and whitew-ashing of the house
fronts under a penalty of fines, ranging from $5
to $25, if the work was not done within a given
time. For awhile there was a plastering of
cracked walls, a whitening of house fronts and a
brightening of interiors. The sindico's account
book, in the old archives, contains a charge of
twelve reals for a fanega (one and one-half bush-
els) of lime, "to whitewash the court."*

Don Leonardo's dream of transforming the
"City of the Angels" into a Mexican paradise
was never realized. The fines were never col-
lected. The cracks in the walls widened and
were not filled. The whitewash faded from the
house fronts and was not renewed. The old
pueblo again took on the gloom of the cata-
combs.

The manners and customs of the people in the
adobe age were in keeping with its architecture.
There were no freaks and fads in their social life.
The fashions in dress and living did not change
suddenly. The few wealthy people in the town
and country dressed well, even extravagantly,
while the many poor ]ieople dressed sparingly —
if indeed some were dressed at all. Robinson de-
scribes the dress of Tomas Yorba, a wealthy
ranchero of the upper Santa Ana, as he saw him
in 1829: "I'pon his head he wore a black silk

*Tlio o

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

handkerchief, tlie four corners of which liung
ilown his neck behind. An embroidered shirt;
a cravat of white jaconet tastefully tied ; a blue
damask vest ; short clothes of crimson velvet ;
a bright green cloth jacket, with large silver
buttons, and shoes of embroidered deerskin
composed his dress. I was afterwards informed
by Don Alanuel (Dominguez) that on some oc-
casions, such as some particular feast day or fes-
tival, his entire display often exceeded in value
a thousand dollars."

The same authority (Robinson) says of the
women's dress at that time (1829) : "The dress
worn by the middle class of females is a chemise,
with short embroidered sleeves, richly trimmed
with lace ; a muslin petticoat, flounced with scar-
let and secured at the waist by a silk band of the
same color ; shoes of velvet or blue satin ; a cot-
ton reboso or scarf; pearl necklace and earrings,
with hair falling in broad plaits down the back."

Of the dress of the men in 1829, Robinson
says : 'A^ery few of the men have adopted our
mode of dress, the greater part adhering to the
ancient costume of the past century. Short
clotlies and a jacket trimmed with scarlet ; a silk
sash about the waist ; botas of ornamented deer-
skin and embroidered shoes ; the hair long,
braided and fastened behind with ribbons ; a
black silk handkerchief around the head, sur-
mounted by an oval and broad brimmed hat is
the dress usually worn by the men of Califor-
nia."

After the coming of the Hijar colony, in 1834,
there was a change in the fashions. The colo-
nists brought with them the latest fashions from
the city of Mexico. The men generally adopt-
ed calzoneras instead of the knee breeches or
short clothes of the last century. "The calzo-
neras were pantaloons with the exterior seam
open throughout its length. On the upper edge
was a striji of cloth, red, blue or black, in which
w ere the button-holes. On the other edge were
eyelet holes for the buttons. In some cases the
calzonera was sewn from the hip to the middle
of the thigh : in others, buttoned. From the mid-
dle of the thigh downward the log was covered
liy the bota or leggings, used by every one,
whatever his dress." The short jacket, with sil-
ver or bronze buttons, and the silken sash that
served as a connecting link between the calzo-
neras and the jacket, and also supplied the place
of what the Californians did not wear — suspen-
ders, this constituted a picturesque costume,
that continued in vogue until the conquest, and
with many of the natives for several years after it.
After 1834 the fashionable women of California
"exchanged their narrow skirts for more
(lowing garments and abandoned the braided
hair for the coil, and the large combs till then

in use, for smaller combs.''* For outer wraps
the serapa for men and the rcboza for women
were universally worn. The texture of these
marked the social standing of the wearer. It
ranged from cheap cotton and coarse serge to
the costliest silk and the finest of French broad-
cloth.

The legendary of the hearthstone and the fire-
side, which fills so large a place in tiie home life
of the Anglo Saxon, had no part in the domestic
system of the Californian, he had no hearthstone
and no fireside ; nor could that pleasing fiction of
Santa Claus' descent through the chinmey on
Christmas eve, that so delights the young chil-
dren of to-day, have had any meaning to the
youthful Californian of the old pueblo days.
There were no chimneys in the old pueblos. The
only means of warming the houses by artificial
heat was a pan of coals set on the floor. The
people lived out of doors in the open air and
invigorating sunshine. The houses were places
to sleep in or shelters from the rain. The kitch-
ens were detached from the living rooms. The
better class of dwellings usually had out of doors
or in an open shed, a beehive shaped earthen
oven, in wdiich the family baking was done. The
poorer class of the pueblanos cooked over a
campfire, with a flat stone (on which the tortillas
were baked) and a few pieces of pottery. The
culinary outfit was not extensive, even in the best
appointed kitchens.

Before the mission mill was built near San
Gabriel, the first mill constructed in Southern
California, the hand mill and the metete, or
grinding stone, were the only means of grinding
wdieat or corn. To obtain a supply of flour or
meal for a family by such a process was slow
and laborious, so the family very often dispensed
with bread in the bill of fare. Bread was not
the stafif of life in the old pueblo days. F.ccf
was the staple article of diet.

As lumber was scarce and hard to |)r(icure
most of the houses had earthen floors. The fur-
nitm-c was meager, a few benches, a rawhide
bottomed chair to sit on, a rough table, a chest
or two to keep the family finery in, a few cheaj)
prints of saints on the walls formed the decora-
tions and furnishings of the living rooms of the
connnon people. The bed w-as the pride and
ambition of the housewife and, even in humble
dwellings, sometimes a snowy counterpane and
lace trimmed pillows decorated a couch, whose
base w-as a bullock's hide stretched on a rough
frame of wood. A shrine dedicated to the patron
saint of the household was a very essential part
of a well-ordered home.

I'"ilial obedience and respect fur ]inrental an-

HISTORICAL AND lllOGRArillCAL RECORD.

tlmrity wxrc early impresseil upon the minds of
the children. A child was never too old or too
large to he exempt from punishment. Stephen
C. Foster used to relate an amusing case of par-
ental disciplining he once saw : An old lady of
60, a grandmother, was belaboring with a barrel
stave, her son, a man of 30 years of age. The
boy had done something that his mother did not
approve of. She sent for him to come over to
the maternal home, to receive his punishment.
He came. She took him out to the metaphorical
wood shed, which in this case was the portico of
her house, where she stood him up and pro-
ceeded to administer corporal punishment. With
the resounding thwacks of the barrel-stave she
would exclaim, 'Til teach you to behave your-
self! I'll mend your manners, sir! Now, you
will be good, won't you ?" The big man took his
punishment without a thought of resenting or
rebelling; in fact, he rather seemed to enjoy it.
It was, no doubt, a feeling and forcible reminder
of his boyhood days.

In the earlier days of California, before revo-
lutionary ideas had perverted the usages of the
people, great respect was shown to those in au-
thority and the authorities were strict in requir-
ing deference from their constituents. In the
Los Angeles archives of 1828 are the records of
an impeachment trial of Don Antonio M. Lugo,
held to depose him from the office of Judge of
the Plains. The principal duty of such a judge
was to decide cases of disputed ownership of
stray cattle and horses. Lugo seems to have
had a very exalted idea of the dignity of his
office. Among the complaints was one from
young Pedro Sanchez, who testified that Lugo
had tried to ride his horse over him in the street,
because he, Sanchez, would not take off his hat
to the judge and, remain standin;; uncovered
while Lugo rode past.

Lender Mexican domination there was no
tax levied on land and improvements. The
numici])al funds of the pueblos were obtained
from the revenue on wine antl brandy ; from
the licenses of saloons and other business
houses, from the tariff on imports, from per-
mits to give balls or dances, from the fines
of transgressors and from the tax on bull
rings an<l cock pits. Then men's pleasures and
vices paid the cost of governing. Although in
the early '40s the city of Los Angeles had a pop-
ulation of 2,000 the revenues did not exceed
$r,ooo a year; yet with this small amount the
municipal authorities ran a city government and
kept out of debt. It did not cost nnich then to
run a city government. There was no army
of high salaried officials then, with a horde of
political heelers, quartered on the nnmicipality
and fed from tlic public crib at the expense of

the taxpayer. Politicians may have been no
more honest then than now, but where there
was nothing to steal there was no stealing. The
old alcaldes and regidores were wise enough not
to put temptation in the way of the politicians,
and thus they kept them reasonably honest, or
at least tliey kept them from plundering the tax-
payers, by the simple expedient of having no
taxpayers. The only salaried officers in the days
when the Most Illustrious Ayuntamiento was
the ruling power in the city, were the secretary
of that body, the sindico or revenue collector and
the schoolmaster (that is when there was one).
The highest monthly salary paid the secretary,
who was also ex-officio clerk of the alcalde's
court, was $40; the sindico received a commis-
sion on collections and the schoolmaster was
paid $15 per month. If like Oliver Twist he
cried for more he was dismissed for evident un-
fitness for his duties; his unfitness appearing in
his inability to live on his meager salary.

The functions of the various departments of
the city government were most economically
performed. Street cleaning and the lighting of
the city were provided for on a sort of automatic
principle. There was an ordinance that required
each owner of a house, every Saturday, to sweep
and clean in front of his premises to the middle
of the street. His neighbor on the opposite
side met him half way and the street was swept
without expense to the city. There was another
ordinance that required each owner of a house
of more than two rooms on a principal street to
hang a lighted lantern in front of his door from
twilight to eight o'clock in winter and to nine
in summer. So the city was at no expense for
lighting. There were fines for neglect of these
duties. The crows had a contract for removing
the garbage. No garbage wagon with its aroma
of decay scented the atmosphere of the brown
adobe fronts in the days of long ago. There
were no fines imposed upon the crows for m-
glect of duty. Evidently they were efficient cil\
officials. Similar ordinances for lighting and
street sweeping were in force at Santa Barbara
and San Diego. At Santa Barbara they were
continued for at least a decade after the Amer-
ican occupation.

It is said "that every dog has his day." There
was one day each week that the dogs of Los
Angeles did not have on which to roam about ;
and that was Monday. Every Monday was dog
catcher's day, and was set apart by ordinance
for tlrt killing of tramp dogs. Woe betide the
unfortunate canine which on that day escaped
from his kennel, or broke loose from his tether.
A swift flying lasso encircled his neck and the
breath wa> quickly choked out of his body.
Mondav was n '"dies irae," an evil dav lo the

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

youthful Angeleno with a dog, and the dog
catcher was abhorred and despised then as now
by every boy wlio possessed a canine pet.

There was no fire department in tlie old pueb-
los. The adobe houses with their clay walls,
earthen floors and rawhide doors were as nearly
fireproof as any human habitation could be
made. I doubt whether any muchacho of the
old regime ever saw a house on fire. The boys
of that day never experienced the thrilling pleas-
ure of running to a fire. What boys sometimes
miss by being born too soon ! There were no
paid police departments. Every able-bodied
young man was subject to military duty. A vol-
unteer guard or patrol was kept on duty at the
cuartel, or guard house. These guards policed

the pueblos, but they were not paid. jLach young
man had to take his turn at guard duty.

Niewed from our standpoint of higli civiliza-
tion, life in the old pueblo days was a monoton-
ous round of wearying sameness — uneventful
and uninteresting. The people of that day, how-
ever, managed to extract a great deal of pleasure
from it. Undoubtedly they missed — by living so
long ago — many things that we in this highly
enlightened age have come to regard as necessi-
ties of our existence; but they also missed the
harrowing cares, the vexations and the excessive
taxation, both mental and numlcipal, that pre-
maturely furrow our brows and whiten our
locks.

CHAPTER XVI.

ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA BY THE UNITED STATES-CAPTURE
OF LOS ANGELES.

THE acquisition of California by the United
States was the result of one of those
spasms of territorial expansion that seem
at certain periods to - take hold of the body
politic. It had been for several years a fore-
gone conclusion in the minds of the leading poli-
ticians of the then dominant party that the
inanifest destiny of California was to become
United States territory. The United States must
have a l^acific boundary, and those restless no-
mads, the pioneers of the west, must have new
country to colonize. England or France might
at any time seize the country ; and, as Mexico
must eventually lose California, it were better
that the United States should possess it than
some European power. All that was wanting
for the United States to seize and appropriate
it was a sufficient provocation by the Mexican
government. The ])rovocation came, but not
from Mexico.

Capt. John C. h'remont, an engineer and ex-
plorer in the services of tlie United States, ap-
l)eared at Monterey in January, 1846, and applied
to Gen. Castro, the military comandante, for
permission to buy supjilies for his party of sixty-
two men who were encamped in the San Joaquin
Valley, in what is now Kern County. Permis-
sion was given him. There seems to have been
a tacit agreement between Castro and Fremont
that the exploring party should not enter the
settlements, but early in March the whole force
was encamped in the Salinas valley. Castro re-
garded the marching of a body of armed men
through the country as an act of hostility, and
ordered them out of the couutrv. Instead of

leaving, Fremont intrenched himself on an emi-
nence known as Gabilian Peak (about thirty
miles from Monterey), raised the stars and
stripes over his barricade and defied Castro.
Castro maneuvered his troops on the plain be-
low, but did not attack Fremont. After two
days" waiting Fremont abandoned his position
and began his march northward. On May 9,
when near the Oregon line, he was overtaken by
Lieut. Gillespie, of the United States navy, with
a dispatch from the president. Gillespie had left
the United States in November, 1845, a"d, dis-
guised, had crossed IMexico from \'era Cruz to
Mazatlan, and from there had reached Monterey.
The exact nature of the dispatches to Fremont
is not known, but presumably they related to
the impending war between Mexico and the
United States, and the necessity for a prompt
seizure of the country to prevent it from falling
into the hands of Juigland. Fremont returned
to the Sacramento, where he encamped.

On the 14th of June, 1846, a body of American
settlers from tlie Napa and Sacramento valleys,
thirty-three in number, of which Ide, Semple,
Grigsby and Merritt seem to have been the lead-
ers, after a night's march, took possession of the
old Castillo or fort at Sonoma, with its rusty
muskets and unused cannon, and made Gen. M.
G. \'allejo, Lieut.-Col. Prudon, Capt. Salvador
Vallejo and Jacob P. Leese, a brother-in-law of
the \'allejos, prisoners. There seems to have
been no privates at the castillo — all officers.
Exactly what was the object of the American
settlers in taking Gen. \'allejo prisoner is not
evident. Gen. \allejo was one nf the few emi-

S)4

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ncnt Califoniians wlio favored the annexation
of California to the L'nited States. He is said
to have made a speech favoring such a move-
ment in the junta at Monterey a few months
before. Castro regarded him with suspicion.
The prisoners were sent under an armed escort
to Fremont's camp, ^\'illiam B. Ide was elected
captain of the revolutionists who remained at
Sonoma, to "hold the fort." He issued a pro-
nunciamento full of bombast, bad English and
worse orthography. He declared California a
free and independent state, under the name of
the California Republic. A nation must have a
flag of its own, so one was improvised. It was
made of a piece of cotton cloth, or manta, a yard
wide and five feet long. Strips of red flannel torn
from an old petticoat that had crossed the plains
were stitched on the manta for stripes. \Vith a
blacking brush, or, as another authority says,
the end of a chewed stick for a brush, and red-
berry juice for paint. W'ilham L. Todd painted
the figure of a grizzly bear rampant on the field
of the flag. The natives called Todd's bear "co-
chino" — a pig; it resemb'.ed that animal more
than a bear. A five-pointed star in the left upper
corner, painted with the same coloring matter,
and the words, "California Republic." printed
on it in ink, completed the famous bear-flag.

The California Republic was ushered into ex-
istence June 14, 1846, attained the acme of its
power July 4, when Ide and his fellow-patriots
burnt a quantity of powder in salutes, and fired
off oratorical pyrotechnics in honor of the new
republic. It utterly collapsed on the 9th of July,
after an existence of twenty-five days, when
news reached Sonoma that Commodore Sloat
had raised the stars and stripes at Monterey and
taken possession of California in the name of the
United States.

Commodore Sloat, who had anchored in Mon-
terey Bay July 2, 1846, was for a time imdecided
whether to take possession of the country. He
!iad no official information that war had 1)een de-
clared between the United States and Mexico ;
but, acting on the supposition that Capt. Fre-
mont had received definite instructions, on the
/th of July he raised the flag and took possession
of the custom-house and government buildings
at Monterey. Capt. Montgomery, on the 9th,
raised it at San Francisco, and on the same day
the Bear flag gave place to the stars and stripes
at Sonoma.

Gen. Castro was holding Santa Clara and San
Jose when he received Commodore Sloat's proc-
lamation informing him that the conuuodore
had taken possession of Monterey. Castro, after
reading the proclamation, which was written in
Spanish, formed his men in line, and. addressing
them, said : "Monterey is taken bv the .\meri-

cans. What can I do with a handful of men
against the United States? I am going to Mex-
ico. All of you who wish to follow me, 'About
face !' All that wish to remain can go to their
homes"* A very small part of hi.; force followed
him.

Commodore Sloat was superseded by Commo-
dore Stockton, who set about organizing an ex-
pedition to subjugate the southern part of the
territory which still remained loyal to ^lexico.
Fremont's exploring party, recruited to a bat-
talion of 160 men, had marched to ^Monterey, and
from there was sent by vessel to San Diego to
procure horses and prepare to act as cavalrv.
* * * * '

Let us now return to Los Angeles, and learn
how afYairs had progressed at the capital.

Pio Pico had entered upon the duties of the
governorship with a desire to bring peace and
liarmony to the distracted country. He appointed
Juan r)andini, one of the ablest statesmen of the
south, his secretary, .\fter Bandini resigned he
chose J. M. Covarrubias, and later Jose M. Mo-
reno filled the office.

The principal offices of the territory had been
divided equally between the politician.? of the
north and the south, ^^'h!le Los Angeles be-
came the capital, and the departmental assembly
met there, the military headquarters, the ar-
chives and the treasury remained at Monterey.
But notwithstanding this division of the spoils
of office, the old feud between the arribanos and
the abajenos would uot down, and soon the old-
time quarrel was on with all its bitterness. Cas-
tro, as military comandante, ignored the gov-
ernor, and Alvarado was regarded by the sureiios
as an emissary of Castro's. The departmental
assembly met at Los Angeles in IXIarch, 1846.
I'ico presided, and in his opening message set
forth the unfortimate condition of affairs in the
department. Education was neglected ; justice
was not administered : the missions were so bur-
dened by debt that but few of them could be
rented ; the army was disorganized and the treas-
ury empty.

Not even the danger of war with the .\nicri-
cans could make the warring factions forget
their fratricidal strife. Castro's proclamation
against Fremont was construed by the surenos
into a scheme to inveigle the governor to the
north so that the comandante-general could de-
pose him and seize the office lor himself. Cas-
tro's preparations to resist by force the encroach-
ments of the .Americans were believed, bv Pico
and the Angelenians. to be the fitting out of an
army to attack Los .Angeles and overthrow the
government.

Trail's irislory of .S.in Jose.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

On the ibth of June, Pico left Los .Angeles for
Monterey with a mihtary force of a hundred
men. The object of the expedition was to op-
pose, and, if possible, to depose Castro. He left
the capital under the care of the ayuntamiento.
On the 20th of June, Alcalde Gallardo reported to
the ayuntamiento that he had positive informa-
tion "that Don Castro had left Monterey and
would arrive here in tijree days with a military
force for the purpose of capturing the city."
(Castro had left Monterey with a force of 70
men, but he had gone north to San Jose.) The
sub-prefect, Don Abel Stearns, was authorized
to enlist troops to preserve order. On the 23d
of June, three companies were organized — an ar-
tillery company under ]\Iiguel Pryor, a company
of riflemen under Benito Wilson, and a cavalry
company under Gorge Palomares. Pico called
for re-inforcements, but just as he was preparing
to march against Monterey the news reached
him of the capture of Sonoma by the Americans,
and next day, June 24, the news reached Los An-
geles just as the cou.ncil had decided on a plan of
defense against Castro, who was 500 miles away.
Pico, on the impulse of the moment, issued a
proclamation, in which he arraigned the United
States for perfidy and treachery, and the gang
of "North American adventurers," who had cap-
tured Sonoma "with the blackest treason the
spirit of evil can invent." His arraignment of the
"North American Nation" was so severe that
some of his American friends in Los Angeles
took umbrage at his pronunciamento. He after-
wards tried to recall it, but it was too late ; it had
been published.

Castro, finding the "foreign adventurers" too
numerous and too aggressive in the northern
part of the territory, determined, with what men
lie could induce to go with him, to retreat to the
south ; but before so doing he sent a mediator
to Pico to negotiate a treaty of peace and amity
between the factions. On the 12th of July the two
armies met at Santa Margarita, near San Luis
Obispo. Castro brought the news that Commo-
dore Sloat had hoisted the United States flag
at Monterey and taken possession of the country
for his government. The meeting of the gov-
ernor and the comandante-general was not very
cordial, but in the presence of the impending
danger to the territory they concealed their mu-
tual dislike and decided to do their best to defend
the country they both loved.

Sorrowfully they began their retreat to the
capital; but even threatened disaster to their
common country could not wholly unite the
north and the south. The respective armies —
Castro's numbering about 150 men and Pico's
^20 — kept about a day's march apart. Thev
ronchod T.ns Angeles, ;ind prc]iarntions were be-

gun to resist the invasion of the Americans.
Pico issued ?. proclamation ordering all able-
bodied men between 15 and 60 years of age, na-
tive and naturalized, to take up arms to defend
the country ; any able-bodied Mexican refusing
was to be treated as a traitor. There was no
enthusiasm for the cause. The old factional
jealousy and distrust was as potent as ever. The
militia of the south would obey none but their
own officers ; Castro's troops, who considered
themselves regulars, ridiculed the raw recruits of
the surenos, while the naturalized foreigners of
American extraction secretly sympathized with
their own people.

Pico, to counteract the malign influence of his
Santa Barbara proclamation and enlist the sym-
pathy and more ready adhesion of the foreign
element of Los Angeles, issued the following
circular: (This circular or proclamation has
never before, found its way into print. I find no
allusion to it in Bancroft's or Hittell's Histories.
A copy, probably the only one in existence, was
donated some years since to the Historical So-
ciety of Soutliorn California. I am indebted to
Prof. Carlos Bransby for a most excellent trans-
lation.)

Gobierno del Dep.
de Californias.

"Circular. — As owing to the unfortunate
condition of things that now prevail in this de-
partment in consequence of the war into which
the United States has provoked the Mexican
Nation, some ill feeling might spring up between
the citizens of the two countries out of which
unfortunate occurrences might gi'ow, and as this
government desires to remove every cause of
friction, it has seen fit, in tlic use of its power, to
issue the present circular.

"The Government of the department of Cali-
fornia declares in the most solenni manner that
all the citizens of the United States that have
come lawfully into its territory, relying upon the
honest administration of the laws and the ob-
servance of the prevailing treaties, shall not be
molested in the least, and their lives and prop-
erty shall remain in perfect safety under the pro-
tection of the Mexican laws and authorities le-
gally constituted.

"Therefore, in the name of the Supreme Gov-
ernment of the Nation, and by virtue of the au-
thority vested upon me, I enjoin upon all the
inhabitants of California to observe towards the
citizens of the United States that have lawfully
conic among us, the kindest and most cordial

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD.

conduct, and to abstain from all acts of violence
against their persons or property ; provided they
remain neutral, as heretofore, and take no part
in the invasion effected by the armies of their
nation.

"The authorities of the various municipalities
and corporations will be held strictly responsible
for the faithful fulfillment of this order, and shall,
as soon as possible, take the necessary measures
to bring it to the knowledge of the people. God
and Libert v. Angeles, July 27, 1846.

"Pio Pico.
"Jose Matias Mareno,

"Secrelary pro teiii."

When we consider the conditions existing in
California at the time this circular was issued, its
sentiments reflect great credit on Pico for his hu-
manity and forbearance. A little over a month
before, a mob of Americans, many of them in the
country contrary to its laws, had without cause
or provocation seized Gen. \^allejo and several
other prominent Californians in their homes and
incarcerated them in prison at Sutter's Fort.
Nor was this outrage mitigated when the stars
and stripes were raised. The perpetrators of the
outrage were not punished. These native Cali-
fornians were kept in prison nearly two months
without any charge against them. Besides, Gov-
ernor Pico and the leading Californians very well
knew that the Americans whose lives and prop-
erty tliis proclamation was designed to protect
would not remain neutral when their country-
men invaded the territory. Pio Pico deserved
better treatment from the Americans than he re-
ceived. He was robbed of his landed posses-
sions by unscrupulous land sharks, and his char-
acter defamed by irresponsible historical scrib-
blers.

Pico made strenuous efiforts to raise men and
means to resist tlie threatened invasion. He had
mortgaged the government house to de Cells for
$2,000, the mortgage to be paid "as soon as or-
der shall be established in the department." This
loan was really negotiated to fit out the ex-
pedition against Castro, but a part of it was
expended after his return to Los Angeles in pro-
curing supplies while preparing to meet the
American army. The government had but little
credit. The moneyed men of the pueblo were
averse to putting money into what was almost
sure to prove a lost cause. The bickerings and
jealousies between the factions neutralized to a
considerable degree the efforts of Pico and Cas-
tro to mobilize the army.

Castro established his camp on the mesa
across the river, near where Mrs. Hollenbeck's
residence now is. Here he and .\ndres Pico un-
dertook to drill the somewhat incongruous col-

lection of hombres in military maneuvering.
Their entire force at no time exceeded 300 men.
These were poorly armed and lacking in dis-
cipline.

* * * *

We left Stockton at Monterey preparing an
expedition against Castro at Los Angeles. C^n
taking command of the Pacific squadron July 29,
he issued a proclamatiorik It was as bombastic
as the pronunciamento of a Mexican governor.
Bancroft says : "The paper was made up of false-
hood, of irrelevant issues and bombastic ranting
in about equal parts, the tone being offensive and
impolitic even in those inconsiderable portions
which were true and legitimate." His only ob-
ject in taking possession of the country was "to
save from destruction the lives and property of
the foreign residents and citizens of the territory
who had invoked his protection." In view of
Pico's humane circular and the imiform kind
treatment that the Californians accorded the
American residents, there was very little need of
Stockton's interference on that score.

Commodore Sloat did not approve of Stock-
ton's proclamation or his policy.

On the 6th of August Stockton reached San
Pedro and landed 360 sailors and marines. These
were drilled in military movements on land and
prepared for the march to Los Angeles.

Castro sent two commissioners — Pablo de La
Guerra and Jose M. Flores — to Stockton, asking
for a conference and a cessation of hostilities
while negotiations were pending. They asked
that the United States forces remain at San
Pedro while the terms of the treaty were under
discussion. These requests Commodore Stock-
ton peremptorily refused and the commissioners
returned to Los Angeles without stating the
terms on which they proposed to treat.

In several so-called histories, I find a very dra-
matic account of this intervievv. "On the arrival
of the commissioners they were marched up to
the mouth of an immense mortar shrouded in
skins save its huge aperture. Their terror and
discomfiture were plainly discernible. Stockton
received them with a stern and forbidding coun-
tenance, harshly demanding their mission, which
they disclosed in great confusion. They bore a
letter from Castro proposing a truce, each party
to hold its own possessions until a general pacifi-
cation could be had. This proposal Stockton
rejected with contempt, and dismissed the com-
missioners with the assurance that only an imme-
diate disbandment of his forces and an uncon-
ditional surrender would shield Castro from the
vengeance of an incensed foe. The messengers
remounted their horses in dismay and fled back
to Castro." The mortar story, it is needless to
s.'iv. is a nure fabrication, vet it nuis through a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

number of so-called histories of California. Cas-
tro, on the gth of August, held a council of war
with his ofificers at the Campo en La Mesa. He
announced his intention of leaving the country
for the purpose of reporting to the supreme gov-
ernment, and of returning at some future day to
punish the usurpers. He wrote to Pico : "I can
count on only loo men, badly armed, worse sup-
plied and discontented by reason of the miseries
they suffer ; so that I have reason to fear that not
even these few men will fight when the necessity
arises." And this is the force that some imag-
inative historians estimate at 800 to 1,000 men.

Pico and Castro left Los Angeles on the night
of August 10 for Mexico ; Castro going by the
Colorado river route to Sonora, and Pico, after
being concealed for a time by his brother-in-law,
Juan Froster, at the Santa Margarita and nar-
rowly escaping capture by Fremont's men, final-
ly reached Lower California and later on crossed
the gulf to Sonora.

Stockton began his march on Los Angeles,
August II. He took with him a battery of four
guns. The guns were mounted on carretas, and
each gun drawn by four oxen. He had with him
a good brass band.

Major Fremont, who had been sent to San
Diego with his battalion of 160 men, had, after
considerable skirmishing among the ranchos,
secured enough horses to move, and on the 8th
of August had begun his march to join Stockton.
He took with him 120 men, leaving about 40 to
garrison San Diego.

Stockton consumed three days on the march.
Fremont's troops joined him just south of the
city, and at 4 P. M. of the 13th the combined
force, numbering nearly 500 men, entered the
town without opposition, "our entry," says Ma-
jor Fremont, "having more the effect of a parade
of home guards than of an enemy taking posses-
sion of a conquered town." Stockton reported
finding at Castro's abandoned camp ten pieces
of artillery, four of them spiked. Fremont says
he (Castro) "had buried part of his guns." Cas-
tro's troops that he had brought down with him
took their departure for their northern homes
soon after their general left, breaking up into
small squads as they advanced. The southern
troops that Pico had recruited dispersed to their
homes before the arrival of the Americans.
Squads of Fremont's battalion were sent out to
, scour the country and bring in any of the Cali-
fornian officers or leading men whom they could

find. These, when found, were paroled. The
.'American troops encamped on the flat near
where the Southern Pacific Railroad now
crosses the river.

Another of those historical myths like the
mortar story named above, which is palmed off
on credulous readers as genuine history, runs as
follows : "Stockton, while en route from San
Pedro to Los Angeles, was informed by a cou-
rier from Castro 'that if he marched upon the
town he would find it the grave of himself and
men.' 'Then,' answered the commodore, 'tell
the general to have the bells ready to toll at
eight o'clock, as I shall be there by that time.' "
.As Castro left Los Angeles the day before Stock-
ton began his march from San Pedro, and when
the commodore entered the city the Alexican
general was probably 200 miles away, the bell
tolling myth goes to join its kindred myths in
the category of history, as it should not be writ-
ten.

On the 17th of August, Stockton issued a sec-
ond proclamation, in which he signs himself
commander-in-chief and governor of the terri-
tory of California. It was milder in tone and
more dignified than his first. He informed the
people that their country now belonged to the
United States. For the present it would be gov-
erned by martial law. They were invited to elect
their local officers if those now in office refused
to serve.

Four days after the capture of Los Angeles
the '■^^''arren," Capt. Hull commander, anchored
at San Pedro. She brought official notice of the
declaration of war between the United States and
Mexico. Then for the first time Stockton
learned that there had been an official declara-
tion of war between the two countries. LTnited
States officers had waged war and taken posses-
sion of California upon the strength of a rumor
that hostilities existed between the countries.

The conquest, if conquest it can be called, was
accomplished without the loss of a life, if we ex-
cept the two Americans, Fowler and Cowie, of
the Bear Flag party, who were brutally mur-
dered by a band of Californians under Padillo,
and the equally brutal shooting of Reryessa and
the two de Haro boys by the Americans at San
Rafael. These three men were shot as spies, but
there was no proof that they were such, and they
were not tried. These murders occurred before
Commodore Sloat raised the stars and stripes at
AFonterev.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XVII.

SIEGE OF LOS ANGELES.

WITH California in his possession and the
official information that war had been
declared by the United States against
Mexico. Stockton set about organizing a govern-
ment for the conquered territory. Fremont was
to be appointed military governor. Detachments
from his battalion were to be detailed to garri-
son towns, while Stockton, with what recruits he
could gather in California and his sailors and ma-
rines, was to undertake a naval expedition
against the west coast of Mexico, land his forces
at Mazatlan or Acapulco and march overland
to "shake hands with General Taylor at the gates
of Mexico." Regarding the conquest of Cali-
fornia as complete, Commodore Stockton ap-
pointed Capt. Gillespie military commandant of
the southern department, with headquarters at
Los Angeles, and assigned him a garrison of
fifty men. He left Los Angeles for the north,
September 2. Fremont, with the remainder of
his battalion, took up his line of march for Mon-
terey a few days later. Gillespie's orders were to
place the city under martial law, but to remove
the more burdensome restrictions to quiet and
well-disposed citizens at his discretion, and a
conciliatory policy in accordance with instruc-
tions of the secretary of the navy was to be
adopted and the people were to be encouraged
to "neutrality, self-government and friendship."
Nearly all historians who have written upon
this subject lay the blame for the subsequent
uprising of the Califomians and their revolt
against the rule of the military commandant,
Gillespie, to his petty tyrannies. Col. J. J. War-
ner, in his Historical Sketch of Los Angeles
County, says : "Gillespie attempted by a coercive
system to effect a moral and social change in the
habits, diversions and pastimes of the people and
to reduce them to his standard of propriety."
Warner was not an impartial judge. He had a
grievance against Gillespie which embittered
him against the captain. Gillespie may have
been lacking in tact, and his schooling in the
navy under the tyrannical regime of the quarter-
deck of fifty years ago was not the best train-
ing to fit him for governing a people unused to
strict government, but it is hardly probable that
in two weeks' lime he could enforce any "coerc-
ive system" looking toward an entire change in
the moral and social h.ubits of the iicojjle. Los

Angeles, as we have learned in a previous chap-
ter, was a hotbed of revolutions. It had a
turbulent and restless element among its inhabit-
ants that was never happier than when foment-
ing strife and conspiring to overthrow those in
power. Of this class Colton, writing in 1846,
says: "They drift about like Arabs. If the tide
of fortune turns against them they disband and
scatter to the four winds. They never become
martyrs to any cause. They are too numerous
to be brought to punishment by any of their
governors and thus escape justice." There was a
conservative class in the territory made up prin-
cipally of the large landed proprietors, both na-
tive and foreign-born, but these exerted small in-
fluence in controlling the turbulent. ^Vhile Los
Angeles had a monopoly of this turbulent and
revolutionary element other settlements in the
territory furnished their full quota of that class
of political knights errant, whose chief pastime
was revolution, and whose capital consisted of a
gaily caparisoned steed, a riata, a lance, a dag-
ger and possibly a pair of horse pistols. These
were the fellows whose "habits, diversions and
pastimes" Gillespie undertook to reduce "to his
standard of propriety."

That Commodore Stockton should have left
Gillespie so small a garrison to hold the city and
surrounding country in subjection shows that
cither he was ignorant of the character of the
people, or that he placed too great reliance in
the completeness of their subjection. With
Castro's men in the city or dispersed among the
neighboring ranchos, many of them still retain-
ing their arms and all of them ready t(i rally at a
moment's notice to the call of their leaders; with
no reinforcements nearer than five hundred miles
to come to the aid of Gillespie in case of an up-
rising, it was foolhardiness in Stockton to en-
trust the holding of the most important ]ilaco
in California to a mere handful of men, half dis-
ciplined and poorly equipped, without fortifica-
tions for defense or supplies to hold out in case
of a siege.

Scarcely had Stockton and Fremont, with their
men. left the city before trouble began. The
turbulent element of the city fomented strife and
seized every occasion to annoy and harass the
militar\- cnmmandanl and his men. While his

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

abis uulhing more than the enforcement of mar-
tial law, may have been somewhat provocative,
the real cause was more deep-seated. The Cali-
fornians, without provocation on their part and
without really knowing the cause why, found
their country invaded, their property taken from
them and their government in the hands of an
alien race, foreign to them in customs and re-
ligion. They would have been a tame and spirit-
less people, indeed, had they neglected the op-
portunity that Stockton's blundering gave them
to regain their liberties. They did not waste
much time. Within two weeks from the time
Stockton sailed from San Pedro hostilities had
begun and the city was in a state of siege.

Gillespie, writing in the Sacramento States-
man in 1858, thus describes the first attack : "On
the 22d of September, at three o'clock in the
morning, a party of sixty-five Californians and
Sonorenos made an attack upon my small com-
mand cjuartered in the government house. We
were not wholly surprised, and with twenty-one
rifles we beat them back without loss to our-
selves,, killing and wounding three of their num-
ber. When daylight came Lieut. Hensley, with
a few men, took several prisoners and drove the
Californians from the town. This party was
merely the nucleus of a revolution commenced
and known to Colonel Fremont before he left
Los Angeles. In twenty-four hours 600 well-
mounted horsemen, and armed with escopetas
(shotguns), lances and one fine brass piece
of light artillery, surrounded Los Angeles and
summoned me to surrender. There were three old
honeycombed iron guns (spiked) in the corral of
my quarters, which we at once cleared and
mounted upon the axles of carts."

Serbulo Varela, a young man of some ability,
but of a turbulent and reckless character, had
been the leader at first, but as the uprising as-
sumed the character of a revolution, Castro's old
officers came to the front. Capt. Jose iMaria
Flores was chosen as comandante-general ; Jose
Antonio Carrillo, major-general ; and Andres
Pico, comandante de escuadron. The main camp
of the insurgents was located on the mesa, east
of the river, at a place called Paredon Blanco
(White Bluf¥), near the present residence of Mrs.
Hollenbeck.

On the 24th of September, from the camp at
White Blulif, was issued the famous Pronuncia-
miento de Barelas y otros Californios contra Los
Americanos (The Proclamation of Barelas and
other Californians against the Americans). It
was signed by Serbulo Varela (spelled Barelas),
Leonardo Cota and over three hundred others.
-Mthough this proclamation is generally credited
to Flores, there is no evidence to show that he
had anything to do with framing it. He promul-

gated it over his signature October i . It is prob-
able that it was written by Varela and Cota. It
has been the custom of American writers to
sneer at this production as florid and bombastic.
In fiery invective and fierce denunciation it is the
equal of Patrick Henry's famous "Give me lib-
erty or give me death !" Its recital of wrongs is
brief, but to the point : "And shall we be capable
of permitting ourselves to be subjugated and to
accept in silence the heavy chains of slavery?
Shall we lose the soil inherited from our fathers,
which cost them so much blood? Shall we leave
our families victims of the most barbarous servi-
tude ? Shall we wait to see our wives outraged,
our innocent children beaten by American whips,
our property sacked, our temples profaned — to
drag out a life full of shame and disgrace? No!
a thousand times no ! Compatriots, death rather
than that ! Who of you does not feel his heart
beat and his blood boil on contemplating our sit-
uation ? Who will be the Mexican that will not
be indignant and rise in arms to destroy our
oppressors? We believe there will be not one
so vile and cowardly !"

Gillespie had left the government house (lo-
cated on what is now the site of the St. Charles
Hotel) and taken a position on Fort Hill, where
he had erected a temporary barricade of sacks
filled with earth and had mounted his cannon
there. The Americans had been summoned to
surrender, but had refused. They were besieged
by the Californians. There was but little firing
between the combatants — an occasional sortie
and a volley of rifle balls by the Americans when
the Californians approached too near. The Cali-
fornians were well mounted, but poorly armed,
their weapons being principally muskets, shot-
guns, pistols, lances and riatas ; while the Amer-
icans were armed with long range rifles, of which
the Californians had a wholesome dread. The
fear of these arms and his cannon doubtless
saved Gillespie and his men from capture.

On the 24th Gillespie dispatched a messenger
to find Stockton at Monterey, or at San Fran-
cisco if he had left Monterey, and apprise him of
the perilous situation of the Americans at Los
Angeles. Gillespie's dispatch bearer, John
Brown, better known by his Californian nick-
name, Juan Flaco or Lean John, made one of
the most wonderful rides in history. Gillespie
furnished Juan Flaco with a package of cigar-
ettes, tlie paper of each bearing the inscription,
"Believe the bearer;" these were stamped with
Gillespie's seal. Brown started from Los An-
geles at 8 P. M., September 24, and claimed to
iiave reached Yerba Buena at 8 P. M. of the
28th, a ride of 630 miles in four days. This is
incorrect. Colton, who was alcalde of Monterey
at that time, notes Brown's arrival at that place

100

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

on the evening of the 29th. Colton, in his
"Three Years in California," says that Brown
rode the whole distance (Los Angeles to Mon-
terey) of 460 miles in fifty-two hours, during
which time he had not slept. His intelligence
was for Commodore Stockton, and, in the nature
of the case, was not committed to paper, except a
few words rolled in a cigar fastened in his hair.
But the Commodore had sailed for San Fran-
cisco, and it was necessary he should go 140
miles further. He was quite exhausted and was
allowed to sleep three hours. Before day he was
up and away on his journey. Gillespie, in a letter
puhlished in the Los Angeles Star, May 28, 1858,
describing Juan Flaco's ride, says : "Before sun-
rise of the 29th he was lying in the bushes at
San Francisco, in front of the Congress frigate,
waiting for the early market boat to come on
shore, and he delivered my dispatches to Com-
modore Stockton before 7 o'clock."

In trying to steal through the picket line of the
Mexicans at Los Angeles he was discovered and
pursued by a squad of them. A hot race ensued.
Finding the enemy gaining on him he forced his
horse to leap a wide ravine. A shot from one of
his pursuers mortally wounded his horse, which
after running a short distance fell dead. Flaco,
carrying his spurs and riata, made his way on
foot in the darkness to Los Virgines, a distance
of twenty-seven miles. Here he secured another
mount and again set off on his perilous journey.
The trail over which Flaco held his way was not
like "the road from Winchester town, a good,
broad highway leading down," but instead a
camino de heradura — a bridle path — now wind-
ing up through rocky canons, skirting along the
edge of precipitous cliffs, then zigzagging down
chaparral-covered mountains ; now over the
sands of the sea beach and again across long
stretches of brown mesa, winding through nar-
row valleys and out onto the rolling hills — a
trail as nature made it unchanged by the hand of
man. Such was the highway over which Flaco's
steeds "stretched away with utmost speed." Har-
assed and pursued by the enemy, facing death
night and day, with scarcely a stop or a stay to
eat or sleep, juan Flaco rode 600 miles.

"Of all the rides since the birth of time,
Told in story or sung in rhyme.
The fleetest ride that ever was sped,"
was Juan Flaco's ride from Los Angeles to San
Francisco. Longfellow has immortalized the
"Ride of Paul Revere," Robert Browning tells
in stirring verse of the riders who brought the
good news froiu Ghent to Aix, and Buchanan
Read thrills us with the heroic measures of Sher-
idan's Ride. No poet has sung of Juan Flaco's
wonderful ride, fleeter, longer and more perilous

than any of these. Flaco rode 600 miles through
the enemy's country, to bring aid to a besieged
garrison, while Revere and Jorris and Sheridan
were in the country of friends or protected by an
army from enemies.

Gillespie's situation was growing more and
more desperate each day. B. D. Wilson, who
with a company of riflemen had been on an ex-
pedition against the Indians, had been ordered
by Gillespie to join him. They reached the Chino
ranch, where a fight took place between them
and the Californians. Wilson's men being out
of ammunition were compelled to surrender. In
the charge upon the adobe, where Wilson and
his men had taken refuge, Carlos Ballestaros had
been killed and several Californians w'ounded.
This and Gillespie's stubborn resistance had em-
bittered the Californians against him and his
men. The Chino prisoners had been saved from
massacre after their surrender by the firmness
and bravery of Varela. If Gillespie continued to
hold the town his obstinacy might bring down
the vengeance of the Californians not only upon
him and his men, but upon many of the Amer-
ican residents of the south, who had favored
their countrymen.

Finally Flores issued his ultimatum to the
xA.mericans — surrender within twenty-four hours
or take the consequence of an onslaught by the
Californians, which might result in the massacre
of the entire garrison. In the meantime he kept
his cavalry deployed on the hills, completely in-
vesting the Americans. Despairing of assistance
from Stockton, on the advice of Wilson, who had
been permitted by Flores to intercede with Gil-
lespie, articles of capitulation were drawn up and
signed by Gillespie and the leaders of the Cali-
fornians. On the 30th of September the Ameri-
cans marched out of the city with all the honors
of war — drums beating, colors flying and two
pieces of artillery mounted on carts drawn by
oxen. They arrived at San Pedro without mo-
lestation, and four or five days later embarked on
the merchant ship Yandalia, which remained at
anchor in the bay. Gillespie in his march was ac-
companied by a few of the .A.merican residents
and probably a dozen of the Chino prisoners,
who had been exchanged for the same number of
Californians, whom he had held under arrest
most likely as hostages.

Gillespie took two cannon with him when he
evacuated the city and left two spiked and
broken on Fort Hill. There seems to have been
a proviso in the articles of capitulation requiring
him to deliver the guns to Flores on reaching the
embarcadero. If there was such a stipulation
Gillespie violated it. He spiked the guns, broke
off the trunnions and rolled one of them into the
bay.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XVlll,

BATTLE OF DOMINGUEZ RANCH— FLORES GOVERNOR.

OF THE notable events occurring during
the conquest of California there are few
others of which there are so contradictory
accounts as of that known as the battle of Do-
minguez ranch. Capt. William Mervine, who
commanded the American forces in the fight,
made no official report, or if he did it was not
published. Historians, in their accounts of the
battle, have collected their data from hearsay and
not from written reports of officers engaged in it.
In regard to the number engaged and the num-
ber killed and wounded, even Bancroft, usually
the most reliable of California historians, has no
accurate report. The number engaged on the
American side varies with different authors from
250 to 400 ; and the number killed from four to
fifteen. It has been my good fortune, through
the kindness of Dr. J. E. Cowles of this city, to
obtain a log book of the U. S. frigate Savan-
nah, kept by his uncle, Robert C. Duvall, who
was an officer on that vessel. Midshipman and
Acting Lieut. Duvall had command of a company
of Colt's Riflemen in the battle. After his return
to the ship he wrote a full, clear and accurate
report of the march, battle and retreat. I tran-
scribe the greater portion of his account. It is
imdoubtedly the best report of that affair in ex-
istence. It will be recollected, as stated in a pre-
vious chapter, that Lieut. Gillespie had been left
l)y Commodore Stockton with a force of fifty
men to garrison Los Angeles. An insurrection,
headed by Flores and Valera, broke out. After
a siege of five or six days Gillespie and his men
evacuated the city and retreated to San Pedro.
Lieut. Gillespie, during the siege, sent a messen-
ger to Stockton at San Francisco asking for rein-
forcements. Juan Flaco, the courier, reached
San Francisco after a ride of 600 miles iri five
days. Commodore Stockton received the dis-
patches, or rather the message, of Gillespie's
courier on the 30th of September. Early on the
morning of October i the "Savannah," Capt.
William Mervine, was ordered to get under way
for San Pedro with a force to relieve Capt. Gil-
lespie.

"At 9:30 A. M.," says Lieut. Duvall, "we com-
menced working out of the harbor of San Fran-
cisco on the ebb tide. The ship anchored at
Saucelito, where, on account of a dense fog, it
remained until the 4th, when it put to sea. On

the 7th the ship entered the harbor of San Pe-
dro. At 6:30 P. M., as we were standing in for
anchorage, we made out the American merchant
ship Vandalia, having on her decks a body of
men. On passing she saluted with two guns,
which was repeated with three cheers, which we
returned. * * * Brevet Capt. Archibald
Gillespie came on board and reported that he
had evacuated the Pueblo de Los Angeles on ac-
count of the overpowering force of the enemy
and had retired with his men on board the "Van-
dalia" after having spiked his guns, one of which
he threw into the water. He also reported that
the whole of California below the pueblo had
risen in arms against our authorities, headed by
Flores, a Mexican captain on furlough in this
country, who had but a few days ago given his
parole of honor not to take up arms against the
United States. We made preparations to land a
force to march to the pueblo at daylight.

"October 8 (1846), at 6 A. M., all the boats left
the ship for the purpose of landing the forces,
numbering in all 299 men, including the volun-
teers, under command of Capt. Gillespie. At
6 :30 all were landed without opposition, the ene-
my in small detachments retreating toward the
pueblo. From their movements we apprehended
that their whole force was near. Capt. Mervine
sent on board ship for a reinforcement of eighty
men, under command of Lieut. R. B. Hitchcock.
At 8 A. M. the several companies, all under com-
mand of Capt. William Mervine, took up the line
of march for the purpose of retaking the pueblo.
The enemy retreated as our forces advanced.
(On landing, William A. Smith, first cabin boy,
was killed by the accidental discharge of a Colt's
pistol.) The reinforcements under the command
of Lieut. R. B. Hitchcock returned on board
ship. For the first four miles our march was
through hills and ravines, which the enemy
might have taken advantage of, but preferred to
occupy as spectators only, itntil our approach.
A few shots from our flankers (who were the
volunteer riflemen) would start them off; they
returning the compliment before going. The
remainder of our march was performed over a
continuous plain overgrown with wild mustard,
rising in places to six or eight feet in height.
The ground was excessively dry, the clouds of
dust were suffocating and there was not a breath

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

<if wind in motion. There wa.s no water on our
line of inarch for ten or twelve miles and we
suffered greatly from thirst.

"At 2 :30 P. M. we reached our camping
ground. The enemy appeared in considerable
numbers. Their numbers continued to increase
until towards sundown, when they formed on a
hill near us, gradually inclining towards our
camp. They wxre admirably formed for a cav-
alry charge. We drew up our forces' to meet
them, but finding they were disposed to remain
stationary, the marines, under command of
Capt. Marston, the Colt's riflemen, under com-
mand of Lieut. I. B. Carter and myself, and the
volunteers, under command of Capt. A. Gillespie,
were ordered to charge on them, which we did.
They stood their ground until our shots com-
menced 'telling' on them, when they took to flight
in every direction. They continued to annoy us
by firing into our camp through the night. About
2 A. M. they brought a piece of artillery and
fired into our camp, the shot striking the ground
near us.) The marines, riflemen and volunteers
were sent in pursuit of the gun, but could see or
hear nothing of it.

"We left our camp the next morning at 6
o'clock. Our plan of march was in column by
platoon. We had not proceeded far before the
enemy appeared before us drawn up on each side
of the road, mounted on fine horses, each man
armed with a lance and carbine. They also had
a field piece (a four-pounder), to which were
hitched eight or ten horses, placed on the road
ahead of us.

"Capt. Mervine, thinking it was the enemy's
intention to throw us into confusion by using
their gun on us loaded with round shot and cop-
per grape shot and then charge us with their
cavalry, ordered us to form a square — which was
the order of march throughout the battle. When
within about four hundred yards of them the
enemy opened on us with their artillery. We
made frequent charges, driving them before us,
and at one time causing them to leave some of
their cannon balls and cartridges ; but owing to
the rapidity with which they could carry off the
gun, using their lassos on every part, enabled
them to choose their own distance, entirely out
of all range of our muskets. Their horsemen
kept out of danger, apparently content to let the
gun do the fighting. They kept up a constant
fire with their carbines, but these did no harm.
The enemy numbered between 175 and 200
strong.

"Finding it impossible to capture the gun, the
retreat was sounded. The captain consulted
with his officers on the best steps to be taken. It
was decided unanimously to return on board
ship. To continue the march would sacrifice a

number of lives to no purpose, for, admitting we
could have reached the pueblo, all communica-
tions would be cut off with the ship, and we
would further be constantly annoyed by their ar-
tillery without the least chance of capturing it.
It was reported that the enemy were between
five and six hundred strong at the city and it
was thought he had more artillery. On retreat-
ing they got the gun planted on a hill ahead of
us.

"The captain made us an address, saying to
the troops that it was his intention to march
straight ahead in the same orderly manner in
which we had advanced, and that sooner than he
would surrender to such an enemy, he would sac-
rifice himself and every other man m his com-
mand. The enemy fired into us four times on
the retreat, the fourth shot falling short, the
report of the gun indicating a small quantity of
powder, after which they remained stationary
and manifested no further disposition to molest
us. ^^'e proceeded quietly on our march to the
landing, where we found a body of men under
command of Lieut. Hitchcock with two nine-
pounder cannon got from the Vandalia to render
us assistance in case we should need it.

"We presented truly a pitiable condition, many
being barely able to drag one foot after the
other from excessive fatigue, having gone
through the exertions and excitement m battle
and afterwards performing a march of eighteen
or twenty miles without rest.

"This is the first battle I have ever been en-
gaged in, and, having taken particular notice of
those around me, I can assert that no men could
have acted more bravely. Even when their ship-
mates were falling by their sides, I saw but one
impulse and that was 10 push forward, and when
the retreat was ordered I noticed a general re-
luctance to turn their backs to the enemy.

"The following is a list of the killed and
wounded :

"Michael Hoey (ordinary seaman), killed;
David Johnson (o. s.), kihed ; Wm. H. Berry
(o. s.), mortally wounded ; Charles Sommers
(musician), mortally wounded ; John Tyre (sea-
man), severely wounded; John Anderson (sea-
man), severely wounded ; recovery doubtful.
The following-named w-ere slightly wounded :
\\'illiani Conland (marine) ; Hiram Rockvill
(mar.); H. Linland (mar.); James Smith (mar.).

"On the following morning we buried the
bodies of William A. Smith, Charles Sommers,
David Johnson and Michael Hoey on an island in
the harbor.

".'\t II A. M. the captain called a council of
conmiissioned officers regarding the proper
course to adopt in the present crisis, which de-
cided that no force should be landed, and that

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD.

103

tlic ship remain here until further orders from
Ihe commodore, who is daily expected."

Entry in the log for Sunday, nth: "William
H. Berry (ordinary seaman) departed this life
from the effect of wounds received in battle. Sent
his body for interment to Dead Man's Island, so
named by us. Mustered the command at quar-
ters, after which performed divine service."

From this account it will be seen that the num-
ber killed and died of wounds received in battle
was four ; number wounded, six ; and one acci-
dentally killed before the battle. On October 22
Henry Lewis died and was buried on the island.
Lewis' name does not appear in the list of the
wounded. It is presumable that he died of dis-
ease. Six of the crew of the Savannah were
buried on Dead Man's Island, four of whom were
killed in battle. Lieut. Duvall gives the follow-
ing list of the officers in the "Expedition on the
march to retake Pueblo de Los Angeles" :

Capt. William Mervine, commanding.

Capt. Ward Marston, commanding marines.

Brevet Capt. A. H. Gillespie, commanding volun-
teers.

Lieut. Henry W. Queen, adjutant.

Lieut. B. F. Pinckney, commanding first company.

Lieut. W. RinckindofF, commanding second com-
pany.

Lieut. I. B. Carter, Colt's riflemen.

Midshipman R. D. Minor, acting lieutenant second
company.

Midshipman S. P. Griflin, acting lieutenant first
company.

Midshipman P. G. Walmough, acting lieutenant sec-
ond company.

Midshipman R. C. Duvall, acting lieutenant Colt's
riflemen.

Capt. Clark and Capt. Goodsall, commanding pike-
Lieut. Hensley, first lieutenant volunteers.

Lieut. Russeau, second lieutenant volunteers.

The piece of artillery that did such deadly
execution on the Americans was the famous Old
Woman's gun. It was a bronze four-pounder,
or pedrero (swivel-gun) that for a number of
years has stood on the plaza in front of the
church, and was used for firing salutes on feast
days and other occasions.

When on the approach of Stockton's and Fre-
mont's forces Castro abandoned his artillery and
fled, an old lady, Dofia Clara Cota de Reyes,
declared that the gringos should not have the
church's gun ; so, with the assistance of her
daughters, she buried it in a cane patch near her
residence, which stood on the east side of Ala-
meda street, near First.

When the Californians revolted against Gilles-
pie's rule the gun was unearthed and used
against him. The Historical Society of Southern
California has in its possession a brass grape-
shot, one of a charge that was fired into the face

lit I'ort Hill at Gillespie's men when Ihcy were
posted on the hill. This old gun was in the e.K-
hibit of trophies at the New Orleans Exposition
in 1885. The label on it read: "Trophy 53, No.
63, Class 7. Used by Mexico against the United
States at the battle of Dominguez' I^anch, Oc-
tober 9, 1846; at San Gabriel and the Mesa, Jan-
uary 8 and 9, 1847; used by the United States
forces against Mexico at Mazatlan, November
II, 1847; Urios (crew all killed or wounded),
Palos Prietos, December 13, 1847, ^nd Lower
California, at San Jose, February 15, 1848." It
should be obtained from the government and
brought back to Los Angeles. Before the battle
the old gun had been mounted on forward axle
of a Jersey wagon, which a man by the name of
Hunt had brought across the plains the year
before. It was lashed to the axle by means
of rawhide thongs, and was drawn by riatas, as
described by Lieut. Duvall. The range was ob-
tained by raising or lowering the pole of the
wagon. Ignacio Aguilar acted as gunner, and
having neither lanyard or pent-stock to fire it, he
touched off the gun with the lighted end of a
cigarette. Never before or since, perhaps, was
a battle won with such crude artillery. Jose An-
tonio Carrillo was in coinmand of the Califor-
nians. During the skirmishing of the first day
he had between 80 and 90 men. During the night
of the 8th Flores joined him with a force of 60
men. Next morning Flores returned to Los
Angeles, taking with him 20 men. Carrillo's
force in the battle numbered about 120 men.

Had Mervine known that the Californians had
fired their last shot — their pow-der being ex-
hausted— he could have pushed on and captured
the pueblo.

The expulsion of Gillespie's garrison from Los
Angeles and the defeat of Mervine's force raised
the spirits of the Californians, and there was
great rejoicing at the pueblo. Detachments of
Flores' army were kept at Sepulvedo's Rancho,
the Palos Verdes, and at Temple's Rancho of
the Cerritos, to watch the Savannah and report
^ny attempt at landing. The leaders of the re-
volt were not so sanguine of success as the rank
and file. They were without means to
procure arms and supplies. There was a scar-
city of ammunition, too. An inferior article of
gunpowder was manufactured in limited quanti-
ties at San Gabriel. The only uniformity in
weapons was in lances. These were rough,
home-made affairs, the blade beaten out of a
rasp or file, and the shaft a willow pole about
eight feet long. These weapons were formida-
ble in a charge against infantry, but easily par-
ried by a swordsman in a cavalry charge.

After the defeat of Mervine, Flores set about
reorganizing the territorial government. He

104

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

callcil togx-lluT llic departmental assembly. It
r.Kt ill the capital (Los Angeles) October 26tli.
The members present — Figueroa, Botello, Guer-
ra and Olvera — were all from the south. The
assembly decided to fill the place of governor,
vacated by Pico, and that of coniandante-gen-
eral, left vacant by the flight of Castro.

Jose Maria Flores, who was now recognized
as the leader of the revolt against American
rule, was chosen to fill both ofifices, and the two
offices, as had formerly been the custom, were
united in one person. He chose Narciso
Botello for his secretary. Flores, who was Mexi-
can born, was an intelligent and patriotic offi-
cer. He used every means in his power to
prepare his forces for the coming conflict with
the Americans, but with little success. The old
jealousy of the hijos del pais against the Mex-
ican would crop out, and it neutralized his ef-
forts. There were bickerings and complaints
in the ranks and among the officers. The na-
tives claimed that a Californian ought to be
chief in command.

The feeling of jealousy against Flores at
length culminated in open revolt. Flores had
decided to send the prisoners taken at the Chino
fight to Mexico. His object was twofold — first,
to enhance his own glory with the Mexican gov-
ernment, and, secondly, by showing what the
Californians had already accomplished to ob-
tain aid in the coming conflict. As most of these

men wore married to California wives, and by
marriage related to many of the leading Cali-
fornia families of the south, there was at once
a family uproar and fierce denunciations of
Flores. But as the Chino prisoners were for-
eigners, and had been taken while fighting
against the Mexican government, it was neces-
sary to disguise the hostility to Flores under
some other pretext. He was charged with the
design of running away to Sonora with the pub-
lic funds. On the night of December 3, Fran-
cisco Rico, at the head of a party of Californians,
took possession of the cuartel, or guard-house,
and arrested Flores. A special session of the as-
sembly was called to investigate the charges.

Flores expressed his willingness to give up
his purpose of sending the Chino prisoners to
Mexico, and the assembly found no foundation
to the charge of his design of running away
with the public funds, nor did they find any
funds to run away with. Flores was liberated,
and Rico imprisoned in turn.

Flores was really the last Mexican governor
of California. Like Pico, he was elected by the
territorial legislature, but he was not confirmed
by the Mexican congress. Generals Scott and
Taylor were keeping President Santa Anna and
his congress on the move so rapidly they had
no time to spare for California affairs.

Flores was governor from October 26, 1846,
to January 8, 1847.

CHAPTER XiX.

THE -SECOND CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA.

STOCKTON with his flag ship, the Con-
gress, arrived at San Pedro on the 23d
of October, 1846. The Savannah was still
lying at anchor in the harbor. The commo-
dore had now at San Pedro a force of about
800 men ; but notwithstanding the contemptuous
opinion he held of the Californian soldiers, he
did not march against the pueblo. Stock-
ton in his report says : "Elated by this
transient success (Mervine's defeat), which
the enemy with his usual want of veracity mag-
nified into a great victory, they collected in large
bodies on all the adjacent hills and would not
l^ermit a hoof except their own horses to be
within fifty miles of San Pedro." But ''in the
face of their boasting insolence" Stockton landed
and again hoisted "the glorious stars in the
presence of their horse-covered hills." "The
enemy had driven off every animal, man and
beast, from that section of the country; and
it was not possible by any means in our power

to carry provisions for our march to the city."
Tl.e city was only 30 miles away and American
soldiers have been known to carry rations in
their haversacks for a march of 100 miles. The
"transient success" of the insolent enemy had
evidently made an impression on Stockton. He
estimated the Californian force in the vicinity
of the landing at 800 men, which was just about
700 too high. He determined to approach Los
Angeles by way of San Diego, and on the last
day of October he sailed for that port. B. D.
Wilson, Stephen C. Foster and others attribute
Stockton's abandonment of an attack on Los
Angeles from San Pedro to a trick played on
him by Jose Antonio Carrillo. Carrillo'was in
connnand of a detachment stationed at the Cer-
ritos and the Palos X'erdes. Carrillo was anx-
ious to obtain an interview with Stockton and
if possible secure a cessation of hostilities until
the war then progressing in Mexico should be
decided, thus settling the fate of California.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

lOS

B. D. Wilson, one of the Chino prisoners, was
sent with a Mexican sergeant to raise a white
flag as the boats of the Congress approached the
landing and present Carrillo's proposition for a
truce. Carrillo, with the intention of giving
Stockton an exaggerated idea of the number of
his troops and thus obtaining more favorable
terms in the proposed treaty, collected droves of
wild horses from the plains ; these his caballeros
kept in motion passing and repassing through
a gap in the hills, which was in plain view from
Stockton's vessel. Owing to the dust raised by
the cavalcade it was impossible to discover that
most of the horses were riderless. The troops
were signaled to return to the vessel, and the
commodore shortly afterwards sailed to San
Diego. Carrillo always regretted that he made
too much dcinonstration.

As an illustration of the literary trash that has
been palmed of¥ for California history, I give an
extract from Frost's Pictorial History of Cali-
fornia, a book written the year after the close
of the Mexican war, by Prof. John Frost, a noted
compiler of histories, who writes LL. D after
his name. It relates to Stockton's exploits at
San Pedro: "At the Rancho Sepulvida (The
Palos A^erdes) a large force of Californians were
posted. Commodore Stockton sent one hundred
men forward to receive the fire of the enemy
and then fall back on the main body without re-
turning it. The main body of Stockton's army
was formed in a triangle with the guns hid by
the men. By the retreat of the advance party
the enemy were decoyed close to tlie main force,
when the wings (of the triangle) were extended
and a deadly fire from the artillery opened upon
the astonished Californians. More than one
hundred were killed, the same number W'Ounded
and one hundred prisoners taken." The mathe-
matical accuracy of Stockton's artillerists was
truly astonishing. They killed a man for every
one wounded and took a prisoner for every man
they killed. As Flores' army never amounted
to more than three hundred, if we are to believe
Frost, Stockton had all the enemy "present or
accounted for." This silly fabrication of Frost's
runs through a number of so-called histories of
California. Stockton was a brave man and a
very energetic commander, but he would boast
of his achievements, and his reports were unre-
liable.

Fremont, who had sailed for the south in the
Sterling with i6o men to co-operate with Stock-
ton against Los Angeles, learned from the Van-
dalia on its voyage northward of Mervine's de-
feat and also that no horses could be obtained in
the south. He returned to Monterey and pro-
ceeded to recruit a force to move against Los
Angeles by land from Monterey. His recruits

were principally obtained from the recently ar-
rived immigrants. Each man was furnished
with a horse and was to receive $25 a month.
A force of about 450 was obtained. Fremont,
now raised to the rank of a lieutenant colonel,
left Monterey, November 17, and rendezvoused at
San Juan Bautista, where he remained to the
29th of the month organizing his battalion. On
the 29th of November he began his march south-
ward to co-operate with Stockton against Flores.

After the expulsion of Gillespie and his men
from Los Angeles, detachments from Flores'
army were sent to Santa Barbara and San Diego
to recapture these places. At Santa Barbara
Fremont had left nine men of his battalion under
Lieut. Theodore Talbot to garrison the town.
A demand was made on the garrison to surren-
der by Col. Garfias of Flores' army. Two hours
were given the Americans to decide. Instead
of surrendering they fell back into the hills,
where they remained three or four days, hop-
ing that reinforcements might be sent them from
Monterey. Their only subsistence was the flesh
of an old gray mare of Daniel Hill's that they
captured, brought into camp and killed. They
secured one of Micheltorena's soldiers who had
remained in the country and was living in a
cafion among the hills for a guide. He fur-
nished them a horse to carry their blankets and
conducted them through the mountains to the
San Joaquin valley. Here the guide left them
with the Indians, he returning to Santa Bar-
bara. The Indians fed them on chia (wild flax-
seed), mush and acorn bread. They traveled
down the San Joaquin valley. On their journey
they lived on the flesh of wild horses, 17 of
which they killed. After many hardships they
reached Monterey on the 8th of November,
where they joined Fremont's battalion. Elijah
Moulton of East Los Angeles is the only sur-
vivor of that heroic band. He has been a resi-
dent of Los Angeles for fifty-five years. I am
indebted to him for the above account.

Captain Merritt, of Fremont's battalion, had
been left at San Diego with 40 men to hold the
town when the battalion marched north to co-
operate with Stockton against Los Angeles.
Immediately after Gille.^pie's retreat, Francisco
Rico was sent with 50 men to capture the place.
He was joined by recruits at San Diego. Mer-
ritt, being in no condition to stand a siege, took
refuge on board the .American whale ship Ston-
ington, which was lying at anchor. After re-
maining on board the Stonington ten days, tak-
ing advantage of the laxity of discipline among
the Californians, he stole a march on them, re-
capturing the town and one piece of their artil-
lery. He sent Don Miguel de Pedrorena, who
was one of his allies, in a whale boat with four

106

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

sailors to San IV-dro to obtain supplies and as-
sistance. Pcdrorena arrived at San Pedro on
the 13th of October with Merritt's dispatches.
Captain Mervine chartered the whale ship Mag-
nolia, which was lying in the San Pedro harbor,
and dispatched Lieut. Minor and Alidshipnien
Duvall and Morgan with 35 sailors and 15 of
Gillespie's volunteers to reinforce Merritt. They
reached San Diego on the i6th. The combined
forces of Minor and Merritt, numbering about
90 men, put in the greater part of the next two
weeks in dragging cannon from the old fort and
mounting them at their barracks, which were lo-
cated on the hill at the edge of the plain on the
west side of the town, convenient to water. They
succeeded in mounting six brass 9-pounders and
building two bastions of adobes, taken from an
old house. There was constant skirmishing be-
tween the hostile parties, but few fatalities. The
Americans claimed to have killed three of the
enemy, and one American was ambushed and
killed.

The Californians kept well out of range, but
prevented the Americans from obtaining sup-
plies. Their provisions were nearly exhausted,
and when reduced to almost the last extreme
they made a successful foraging expedition and
procured a supply of mutton. Midshipman Du-
vall thus describes tlie adventure : "We had
with us an Indian (chief of a numerous tribe)
who, from his knowledge of the country, we
thought could avoid the enemy : and getting
news of a number of sheep about thirty-five miles
to the south on the coast, we determined to send
him with his companion to drive them onto an
island which at low tide connected with the main-
land. In a few days a signal was made on the
island, and the boats of the whale ship Stoning-
ton, stationed ofif the island, were sent to it.
Our good old Indian had managed, through
his cunning and by keeping concealed in ra-
vines, to drive onto the island about 600 sheep,
but his companion had been caught and killed
by the enemy. I shall never forget his fam-
ished appearance, but pride in his Indian
triumph could be seen playing in his dark eyes.

■'For thirty or forty days we were constantly
expecting, from the movements of the enemy,
an attack, soldiers and oflficers sleeping on their
arms and ready for action. About the ist of
November Commodore Stockton arrived, and,
after landing Capt. Gillespie with his company
and about 43 marines, he suddenly disappeared,
leaving Lieut. Minor governor of the place and
Cai^t. Gillespie commandant."*

h'oraging cimtinucd, the whale ship Stoning-
toii, which had been impressed into the govcrn-

^Log Book of Acting Lieutenant Duvall.

nieul service, being used tn take jiarlics down
the coast, who made raids inland and brought
back with them cattle and horses.

It was probably on one of these excursions that
the flag-making episode occurred, of which there
are more versions than Homer had birthplaces.
The correct version of the story is as follows :
A party had been sent under command of Lieut.
Hensley to Juan Bandini's rancho in Lower
California to bring up bands of cattle and horses.
Bandini was an adherent of the American cause.
He and his family returned with the cavalcade
to San Diego. At their last camping place before
reaching the town Hensley, in a conversation
with Bandini, regretted they had no flag with
them to display on their entry into the town.
Senora Bandini volunteered to make one, which
she did from red, white and blue dresses of her
children. This flag, fastened to a staff, was car-
ried at the head of the cavalcade when it made
its triumphal entry into San Diego. The Mex-
ican government confiscated Bandini's ranches
in Lower California on account of his friend-
ship to the Americans during the war.

Skirmishing continued almost daily. Jose
Antonio Carrillo was now in command of the
Californians, their force numbering about 100
men. Commodore Stockton returned and de-
cided to fortify. Midshipman Duvall, in the
Log Book referred to in the previous chapter,
thus describes the fort : "The commodore now
commenced to fortify the hill which overlooked
the town by building a fort constructed by pla-
cing 300 gallon casks full of sand close together.
The inclosure was twenty by thirty yards. A
bank of earth and small gravel was thrown
up in front as high as the top of the casks
and a ditch dug around on the outside. Inside
a ball-proof vault or ketch was built out of plank
and lined on the inside with adobes, on top of
which a swivel was mounted. The entrance was
guarded by a strong gate, with a drawbridge in
front across the ditch or moat. The whole forti-
fication was completed and the guns mounted on
it in about three weeks. Our men working on
the fort were on short allowance of beef and
wheat, and for a time without bread, tea. sugar
or cofTee, many of them being destitute of shoes,
but there were few complaints.

"About the first of December, information
having been received that Gen. Kearnv was at
Warner's Pass, about 80 miles distant, with 100
dragoons on his march to San Diego, Commo-
dore Stockton immediately sent an escort of 50
men under conmiand of Cajit. Gilles])ie, accom-
panied by Past Midshipmen Beale and Duncan,
liaving with them one piece of artillery. They
reached Gen. Kearny without molestation. On
the march the combined force was surprised by

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Ki;

about 93 Californians at San Pasqual, under
command of Andres Pico, who had been sent to
that part of the country to drive ofif all the cattle
and horses to prevent us from getting them. In
the battle that ensued Gen. Kearny lost in killed
Captains Johnston and Moore and Lieutenant
Hammond and 15 dragoons. Seventeen dra-
goons were severely wounded. The enemy cap- ■
tured one piece of artillery. Gen. Kearny and
Captains Gillespie and Gibson were severely
wounded; also one of the engineer officers.
Some of the dragoons have since died."

* -'f ":|: :;: ^ * *

"After the engagement, Gen. Kearny took po-
sition on a hill covcrotl with large rocks. It was
well suited for defense. Lieut. Godey, of Gilles-
pie's volunteers, the night after the battle, es-
caped through the enemy's line of sentries and
came in with a letter from Capt. Turner to the
commodore. Whilst among the rocks, Past
Midshipman Beale and Kit Carson managed,
under cover of night, to pass out through the
enemy's ranks, and after three days' and nights'
hard marching through the mountains without
water, succeeded in getting safely into San
Diego, completely famished. Soon after arriv-
ing, Lieut. Beale fainted away, and for some
days entirely lost his reason."

On the night of Beale's arrival, December 9,
about 9 P. M., detachments of 200 sailors and
marines from the Congress and Portsmouth,
imder the immediate command of Capt. Zeilin,
assisted b>' Lieutenants Gray, Hunter, Renshaw,
Parrish, Thompson and Tilghman, and Mid-
shipmen Duvall and Morgan, each man carry-
ing a blanket, three pounds of jerked beef and
the same of hardtack, l)egan their march to re-
lieve Gen. Kearny. They marched all night and
camped on a chaparral-covered mountain dur-
ing the day. At 4 A. M. of the second night's"
march they reached Kearny's camp, surprising
liini. Godey, who had been sent ahead to inform
Kearny that assistance was coming, had been
captured by the enemy. Gen. Kearny had burnt
and destroyed all his baggage and camp cqui-
])age, saddles, bridles, clothing, etc., preparatory
to forcing his way through the enemy's line.
Burdened with his wounded, it is doubtful
whether he could have escaped. Midshipman
Duvall says : "It would not be a hazard of opin-
ion to say he would have been overpowered and
compelled to surrender." The enemy disappeared
on the arrival of reinforcements. The relief ex-
pedition, with Kearny's men, reached San Diego
after two days' march.

A brief explanation of why Kearny was at
San Pasqual may be necessary. In June, 1846,
Gen. Stephen \V. Kearny, commander of llic
army of the west, as his conmiand was desig-

nated, IcJt I'urt Leavenworth with a force of
regulars to take possession of New Mexico.
The conquest of that territory was accomplished
without a battle. Under orders from the war
department Kearny began his march to Califor-
nia with a part of his force to co-operate with
the naval forces there. October 6, near Socorro.
N. M., he met Kit Carson with an escort of 15
men, en route from Los Angeles to Washington,
bearing dispatches from Stockton, giving the
report of the conquest of California. Kearny
required Carson to turn back and act as his
guide. Carson was very unwilling to do so, as
he was within a few days' journey of his home
and family, from whom he had been separated
for nearly two years. He hail been guide for
Fremont on his exploring expedition. He, how-
ever, obeyed Kearny's orders.

' General Kearny sent back about 300 of his
men, taking with him 120. After a toilsome
march by way of the Pima villages, Tucson, the
Gila and across the Colorado desert, they
reached the Indian village of San Pasqual, (about
40 miles from San Diego), where the battle was
fought. It was the bloodiest battle of the con-
quest ; Kearny's men, at daybreak, riding on
broken-down mules and half-broken horses, in
an irregular and disorderly line, charged the
Californians. While the American line was
stretched out over the plain Capt. Andres Pico,
who was in command, wheeled his column and
charged the Americans. A fierce hand-to-hand
fight ensued, the Californians using their lances
and lariats, the .Vmericans clubbed guns and
sabers. Of Kearny's command 18 men were
killed and 19 wounded; three of the wounded
died. Only one, Capt. Abraham R. Johnston
(a relative of the author's), was killed by a gun-
shot ; all the others were lanced. The mules to
one of the liowitzers became unmanageable antl
ran into the enemy's lines. The driver was
killed and the gun captured. One Californian
was captured and several slightly wounded ;
none was killed. Less than half of Kearny's
160 men took part in the battle. Ilis loss in
killed and wounded was fifty per cent of those
engaged. Dr. John S. Griffin, for many years a
leading physician of Los Angeles, was the sur-
geon of the command.

The foraging expeditions in Lower California
having been quite successful in bringing in cat-
tle, horses and nniles, Connnodore Stockton
hastened his preparation for marching against
Los Angeles. Tlie enemy obtained information
of the projected movement and left for the
pueblo.

"The Cyane having arrived." .says Duvall,
"our force was increased to about 600 men,
most of whom, miderstanding the drill, per-

ins

HISTORICAL AND I'.IOGRArillCAL RECORD.

formed the evolutions like regular soldiers.
Hverything being ready for our departure, the
commodore left Capt. Alontgomery and ofificers
in command of tlie town, and on the 29th of
December took up his line of march for An-
geles. Gen. Kearny was second in command
and having the immediate arrangement of the
forces, reserving for himself the prerogative
which his rank necessarily imposed upon him.
Owing to the weak state of our oxen we had
not crossed the dry bed of the river San Diego
before they began breaking down, and the carts,
which were 30 or 40 in number, had to be
dragged by the men. The general urged on
the commodore that it was useless to commence
such a march as was before us with our present
means of transportation, but the commodore
insisted on performing at least one day's march
even if we should have to return the next. We
succeeded in reaching the valley of the Soledad
that night by dragging our carts. Next day
the commodore proposed to go six miles far-
ther, which we accomplished, and then contin-
ued six miles farther. Having obtained some
fresh oxen, by assisting the carts up hill, we
made ten to twelve miles a day. At San Luis
Key we secured men, carts and oxen, and after
that our day's marches ranged from 15 to 22
miles a day.

"The third day out from San Luis Rey a white
flag was seen ahead, the bearer of which had a
communication from Flores, signing himself
'Conmiander-in-Chief and Governor of Califor-
nia,' asking for a conference for the purpose of
coming to terms, which would be alike "honora-
ble to both countries.' The commodore refused
to answer him in writing, saying to the bearer
of the truce that his answer was, 'he knew no
such person as Governor Flores, that he himself
w^as the only governor in California: that he
knew a rebel by that name, a man who had given
his parole of honor not to take up arms against
the government of the Cnited States, who, if
the people of California now in arms against
the forces of the United States would deliver
up, he (Stockton) would treat with them on con-
dition that they surrender their arms and retire
peaceably to their homes and he would grant
them, as citizens of the United States, protection
from further molestation.' This the embassy
refused to entertain, saying 'they would prefer
to die with Flores than to surrender on such
terms.'

"On the 8th of January, 1847, they met us on
the banks of the river San Gabriel with between
five and six lumdred men mounted on good
horses and armed with lances and carbines, liav-
ing ;ilsn four pieces of artillery planted nu llie

heights about 350 yards distant from the river.
Owing to circumstances which have occurred
since the surrender of the enemy, I prefer not
mentioning the particulars of this day's battle
and also that of the day following, or of refer-
ring to individuals concerned in the successful
management of our forces." (^The circumstance
"to which Lieut. Duvall refers was undoubtedly
the quarrel between Stockton and Kearny after
the capture of Los Angeles.) "It is sufificient to
say that on the 8th of January we succeeded in
crossing the river and driving the enemy from
the heights. Having resisted all tlieir charges,
dismounted one of their pieces and put them
to flight in every direction, we encamped on the
ground they had occupied during the fight.

"The next day the Californians met us on the
Plains of the Mesa. For a time the fighting was
carried on by both sides with artillery, but that
proving too hot for them they concentrated their
whole force in a line ahead of us, and at a given
signal divided from the center and came down
on us like a tornado, charging us on all sides at
the same time ; but they were effectually defeated
and fled in every direction in the utmost confu-
sion. Many of their horses were left dead on the
field. Their loss in the two battles, as given by
Andres Pico, second in command, was 83 killed
and wounded ; our loss, three killed (one acci-
dentally) and 15 or 20 wounded, none danger-
ously. The enemy abandoned two pieces of artil-
lery in an Indian village near by."

i have given at considerable length Midship-
man Duvall's account of Stockton's march from
San Diego and of the two battles fought, not be-
cause it is the fullest account of those events, but
because it is original historical matter — never
having appeared in print before — and also be-
cause it is the observations of a participant writ-
ten at the time the events occurred. In it the
losses of the enemy are greatly exaggerated, but
that was a fault of his superior officers as well.
Commodore Stockton, in his official reports of
the two battles, gives the enemy's loss in killed
and wounded "between seventy and eighty."
And Gen. Kearny, in his report of the battle of
San Pasqual, claimed it as a victory, and states
that the enemy left six dead on the field. The
actual loss of the Californians in the two battles
(San Gabriel River and La Mesa) was three
killed and ten or twelve wounded.*

While the events recorded in this chapter were
transpiring at San Diego and its vicinity, what
w^as the state of affairs in the capital, Los An-
geles? After the exultation and rejoicing over
the expulsion of Gillespie's garrison, Mervine's

*Tlic killed were Igiiacio SepuIvefl.T, Fr.incisco
Riiliin, .mid Kl Gii.iymefKi, .n Vaiitii Indian.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

109

defeat and the victury over Kearny at San Pas-
qual there came a reaction. Dissensions con-
tinued between the leaders. There was lack of
arms and laxit\- of discipline. The army was but
little better than a mob. Obedience to orders
of a superior was foreign to the nature of a Cali-
fornian. His wild, free life in the saddle made
him impatient of all restraint. Then the impossi-
bility of successful resistance against the .\meri-
cans became more and more apparent as the final
conflict approached. Fremont's army was
moving down on the doomed city from the north
and Stockton's was coming up from the south.
Either one of these, in numbers, exceeded the
force that Flores could bring into action ; com-
bined they would crush him out of existence.
The Californian troops were greatly discouraged,
and it was with great difficulty that the officers
kept their men together. There was another and
more potent element of disintegration. Many of
the wealthier natives and all the foreigners, re-
garding the contest as hopeless, secretly favored
the American cause, and it was only through fear
of loss of property that they furnished Flores
and his officers any supplies for the army.

During the latter part of December and the
first days of January Flores' army was stationed
at San Fernando Mission, on the lookout for
Fremont's battalion ; but the more rapid advance
of Stockton's army compelled a change of base.
On the 6th and 7th of January, Flores moved his
army back secretly through the Cahuenga Pass,
and, passing to the southward of the city, took
position where La Jaboneria (the soap factory)
road crosses the San Gabriel river. Here his

men were stationed in the thick willows to give
Stockton a surprise. Stockton received informa-
tion of the trap set for him, and after leaving
the Los Coyotes swung off to the right until he
struck the Upper Santa .'\na road. The Califor-
nians had barely time to efifect a change of base
and get their cannon planted when the Ameri-
cans arrived at the crossing.

Stockton called the engagement there the bat-
tle of the San Gabriel river; the Califomians
call it the battle of Paso de Bartolo, which is the
better name. The place where the battle was
fought is on the bluff just south of the Upper
Santa Ana road, near where the Southern Cali-
fornia Railroad crosses the Old San Gabriel
river. (The ford or crossing was formerly known
as Pico's Crossing.) There was, at the time of
the battle, but one San Gabriel river. The new
river channel was made in the great flood of
1868. What Stockton, Emory, Duvall and other
-American officers call the battle of the "Plains of
the Mesa" the Californians call the battle of La
Mesa, which is most decidedly a better name
than the "Plains of the Plain." It was fought
at a ravine. The Cafiada de Los Alisos, near the
southeastern corner of the city's boundary. In
these battles the Californians had four pieces of
artillery, two iron nine-pounders, the Old Wo-
man's gun and the howitzer captured from
Kearny. Their powder was very poor. It was
made at San Gabriel. It was owing to this that
they did so little execution in the fight. That
the Californians escaped with so little punish-
ment was probably due to the wretched marks-
manship of Stockton's sailors and marines.

CHAPTER XX.

OCCUPATION OF LOS ANGELES— BUILDING OF FORT MOORE.

ftFTER the battle of La Mesa, the Ameri-
cans, keeping to the south, crossed the
river at about the point where the south
boundary line of the city crosses it, and en-
camped on the right bank. Here, under a willow
tree, those killed in battle were buried. Lieut.
Emory, in his "Notes of a Military Reconnois-
sance," says : "The town, known to contain great
(juantities of wine and aguardiente, was four
miles distant (four miles from the battlefield).
From previous experience of the difficulty of
controlling men when entering towns, it was de-
termined to cross the river San Fernando (Los
Angeles'), halt there for the night and enter the
town in the nmrning. with the whole day before

AfH

.itched

came down from the hills, and 400 horsenu'n
with four pieces of artillery drew off towards the
town, in order and regularity, whilst about sixty
made a movement down the river on our rear
and left flank. This led us to suppose they were
not yet wdiipped, as we thought, and that we
should have a night attack.

"January 10. — Just as we had raised our camp,
a flag of truce borne by Mr. Celis, a Castilian,
Mr. Workman, an Englishman, and Alvarado,
the owner of the rancho at the Alisos, was
brought into camp. They proposed, on behalf
of the Californians, to surrender their dear City
of the Angels, provided we would respect prop-
erty and persons. This was agreed to, I)Ut not
altogether trusting to the honesty of Gen.
I'liires. who had once broken his parole, we

HISTORICAL AND BIOCKAI'H HAL RECORD.

inii\i.Ml iiilu tlic tuwii ill the same uriler w c
should have done if expceling an attack.

"It was a wise precaution, for the streets were
full of desperate and drunken fellows, who bran-
dished their arms and saluted us with every
term of reproach. The crest, overlooking the
town, in rifle range, was covered with horsemen
engaged in the same hospitable manner.

"Our men marched steadily on, until crossing
the ravine leading into the public square (plaza),
when a fight took place amongst the Californians
on the hill ; one became disarmed, and to avoid
death rolled down the hill towards us, his adver-
sary pursuing and lancing him in the most cold-
blooded manner. The man tumbling down the
hill was supposed to be one of our vaqueros, and
the cry of 'rescue him !' was raised. The crew of
the Cyane, nearest the scene, at once and with-
out any orders, halted and gave the man that
was lancing him a volley ; strange to say, he did
not fall. The general gave the jack tars a curs-
ing, not so much for the firing without orders,
as for their bad marksmanship."

Shortly after the above episode, the Califor-
nians did open fire from the hill on the vaqueros
in charge of the cattle. (These vaqueros were
Californians in the employ of the Americans and
were regarded by their countrymen as traitors.)
.\ company of riflemen was ordered to clear the
hill. A single volley effected this — killing two
of the enemy. This was the last bloodshed in
the war ; and the second conquest of California
was completed as the first hacl been by the cap-
ture of Los Angeles. Two hundred men, with
two pieces of artillery, were stationed on the
hill.

The Angelenos did not exactly welcome the
invaders with "bloody hands to inhospitable
graves," but they did their best to let them
know they were not wanted. The better class of
the native inhabitants closed their houses and
took refuge with foreign residents or went to the
ranchos of their friends in the country. The fel-
lows of the baser sort, who were in possession of
the city, exhausted their vocabularies of abuse on
the invading gringos.

There was one paisano who excelled all his
countrymen in this species of warfare. It is a
pity his name has not been preserved in history
with that of other famous scolds and kickers.
He rode by the side of the advancing column
up Main street, firing volleys of invectives and
denunciation at the hated gringos. At certain
points of his tirade he worked himself up to such
a pitch of indignation that language failed him;
then he would solemnly go through the motions
of "make ready, take aim!" with an old shotgun
he carried, but when it came to the order, "fire !"
discrelinn got the bcdcr of his valc.r; he lowered

his gun and began again, tiring iii\ective at the
gringo soldiers; his mouth would go off if his
gun would not.

Commodore Stockton's hcad(|uartcrs were in
the Abila House, the second house on Olvera
street, north of the plaza. The building is still
standing, but has undergone many changes in
fifty years. A rather amusing account was re-
cently given me by an old pioneer of the manner
in which Commodore Stockton got possession of
the house. The widow Abila and her daughters,
at the approach of the American army, had aban-
doned their home and taken refuge with Don
Luis Vignes of the Aliso. Mgnes was a French-
man and friendly to both sides. The widow left
a young Californian in charge of her house
(which was finely furnished), with strict orders
to keep it closed. Stockton had with him a fine
brass band — something new in California. When
the troops halted on the plaza, the band began
to play. The boyish guardian of the Abila casa
could not resist the temptation to open the door
and look out. The enchanting music drew him
to the plaza. Stockton and his staff, hunting
for a place suitable for headquarters, passing by,
found the door invitingly open, entered, and,
finding the house deserted, took possession. The
recreant guardian returned to find himself dis-
possessed and the house in possession of the ene-
my. "And the band played on."

THE BUILDING OF FORT MOORE.

It is a fact not generally known that there
were two forts planned and partially built on
Fort Hill during the war for the conquest of Cal-
ifornia. The first was planned by Lieut. William
H. Emory, topographical engineer of Gen. Kear-
ny's staff, and work begun on it by Commodore
Stockton's sailors and marines. The second was
planned by Lieut. J. W. Davidson, of the First
United States Dragoons, and built by the Mor-
mon Battalion. The first was not completed and
not named. The second was named Fort ]\Ioore.
Their location seems to have been identical. The
first was designed to hold lOO men. The second
was much larger. Flores' army was supposed
to be in the neighborhood of the city ready to
make a dash into it, so Stockton decided to
fortify.

"On January ii," Lieut. Emory writes, "I
was ordered to select a site and place a fort
capable of containing a hundred men. With
this in view a rapid reconnoissance of the town
was made and the plan of a fort sketched, so
placed as to enable a small garrison to command
the town and the principal avenues to it. The
plan was approved."

"lanuarv U. — T laid off the work ami before
night bn^kc the first grouii.l. The pcpulalion of

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the town and its dependencies is about 3,000 ;
that of the town itself about 1,500. * * =1^
Here all the revolutions have had their origin,
and it is the point upon which any Mexican
force from Sonora would be directed. It was
therefore desirable to establish a fort which, in
case of trouble, should enable a small garrison
to hold out till aid might come from San Diego,
San Francisco or ^Monterey, places which are des-
tined to become centers of American settle-
ments."

"January 13. — It rained steadily all day and
nothing was done on the work. At night I
worked on the details of the fort."

"January 15. — The details to work on the fort
were by companies. I sent to Capt. Tilghman,
who commanded on the hill, to detach one of the
companies under his command to commence the
work. He furnished, on the i6th, a company
of artillery (seamen from the Congress) for the
day's work, which they performed bravely, and
gave me great hopes of success."

(Jn the 14th of Januar)', Fremont, with his bat-
talion of 450 men, arrived from Cahuenga. There
were then about 1,100 troops in the city, and the
old ciudad put on military airs. On the i8th
Kearny, having quarreled with Stockton about
who should be governor of the conquered terri-
tory, left for San Diego, taking with him Lieut.
Emory and the other members of his staff, and
the dragoons. Emory was sent east by way of
Panama with dispatches. Stockton appointed
Col. Fremont governor, and Col. Russell, of the
battalion, secretary of state of the newly acquired
territory ; and then took his departure to San
Diego, where his ship, the Congress, was ly-
ing. The sailors and marines, on the 20th, took
up their line of march for San Pedro to rejoin
their ships, and work on the fort was abandoned.

Lieut. Emory says : "Subsequent to my leav-
ing the Ciudad de Los Angeles, the entire plan of
the fort was changed, and I am not the pro-
jector of the work finally adopted for defense
of that town." So far as I know, no plan of the
first fort exists. One company of Fremont's bat-
talion was left in charge of the city; the command
of the battalion was turned over to Capt. Owens,
and the other companies marched to San Ga-
Ijriel. Fremont, as governor, established his
headquarters in the Bell block, corner of Aliso
and Los Angeles streets, that being the finest
Iniilding in the city. The quarrel for superiority
between Stockton, Kearny, Mason and Fremont
continued and waxed hotter. Kearny had re-
moved to Monterey. Col. Cooke, with his Mor-
mon battalion, having crossed the plains by the
southern route, had arrived and been stationed
at San Luis Rey. He was an adherent of Kear-
ny's. On the i7tli of March Cooke's Mormon

battalion arrived in Los Angeles. Capt. Owens,
in command of Fremont's battalion, had moved
all the artillery — ten pieces — to the Mission San
Gabriel.

Col. Cooke was placed in command of the
southern district, Fremont's battalion was mus-
tered out of service and the artillery brought
back to Los Angeles.

On the 20th of April rumors reached Los An-
geles that the Mexican general, Bustamente, was
advancing on California with a force of 1,500
men. "Positive information," writes Col. Cooke.
"has been received that the Mexican government
has appropriated $600,000 towards fitting out
this force." It was also reported that cannon
and military stores had been landed at San \'i-
cente, in Lower California, on the coast below
San Diego. Rumors of an approaching army
came thick and fast. War's wrinkled front once
more affrighted the Angelenos, or rather, the
gringo portion. The natives were supposed to
be in league w^ith Bustamente and to be pre-
paring for an insurrection. Precautions were
taken against a surprise. A troop of cavalry
was sent to \\'arner's ranch to patrol the Sonora
road as far as the desert. The construction of a
fort on the hill fully commanding the town,
which had previously been determined upon, was
begun and a companv of infantr_v posted on the
hill.

On the 23d of April, three months after work
had ceased on Emory's fort, the construction of
the second fort was begun and pushed vigor-
ously. Rumors continued to come of the ap-
proach of the enemy. On May 3, Col. Cooke
writes : "A report was received through the most
available sources of information that Gen. Busta-
mente had crossed the gulf near the head in
boats of the pearl fishers, and at last information
was at a rancho on the western road 70 leagues
below San Diego." Col. Stevenson's regiment of
New York volunteers had arrived in California,
and two companies of the volunteers had been
sent to Los Angeles. The report that Col.
Cooke had received large reinforcements and
that the place was being fortified, was snppose<l
to have frightened Bustamente into abandoning
the recapture of Los Angeles. Bustamente's in-
vading army was largely the creation of some-
body's fertile imagination. The scare, however,
had the effect of hurrying up work on the fort.

On the 13th of May Col. Cooke resigned and
Col. J. B. Stevenson succeeded him in command
of the southern military district. Work on the
fort still continued. .\s the fort approached com-
pletion, Col. Stevenson was exercised about a
suitable flagstaff — there was no tall timber in the
vicinity of Los .Angeles. The colonel wanted
a flagstaff that would be an honor to his field

112

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

works and that would float the old flag where it
could be seen of "all men," and women, too.
Nothing less than a pole 150 feet high would
do.

A native Californian, named Juan Ramirez,
was found, who claimed to have seen some trees
in the San Bernardino Mountains that were
nuicho alto — very tall — just what was needed
for a flagstafi^. A contract was made with him
to bring in the timber. The mountain Indians
were hostile, or rather, ihc-y were horse thieves.
The rancheros killed them on sight, like so many
rattlesnakes. An escort of ten soldiers from the
Mormon battalion, under command of a lieuten-
ant, was sent along with Juan to protect him
and his workmen. Ramirez, with a small army
of Indian laborers and a number of Mexican
carts, set out for the headwaters of Mill Creek
in the San Bernardino ^fountains. Time passed ;
the colonel was becoming uneasy over the long
absence of the flagstaff hunters. He had not yet
become accustomed to the easy-going,* poco
tiempo ways of the native Californians. One
afternoon a cloud of dust was seen out on the
mission road. From out the cloud came the
most unearthly shriekings, groanings and wail-
ings. At first it was surmised that it might be
the fag end of Bustamente's army of invasion
that had gotten away from its base of supplies,
or possibly the return of a Mexican revolution
that had been lost on the plains years ago. As
the cloud crossed the river into the Aliso road,
Juan Ramirez' cavalcade and its Mormon es-
cort emerged from it. They had two tree
trunks, one about 90 feet and the other 75 or 80
feet long, mounted on the axles of about a dozen
old carretas, each trunk hauled by twenty yoke
of oxen, and an Indian driver to each ox (Indi-
ans were plentiful in those days). Each wooden
wheel of the carts was sending forth its agoniz-
ing shrieks for axle grease in a different key
from its fellows. Each Indian driver was ex-
hausting his vocabulary of invective on his espe-
cial ox, and punctuating his profanity by vicious
punches with the goad in the poor ox's ribs. The
Indian was a cruel driver. The Mormons of the
escort were singing one of their interminable
songs of Zion — a pean of deliverance from the
hands of the Philistines. They had had a fight
with the Indians, killed three of the hostiles
and had the ears of their victims strung upon a
string.

Never before or since, in the history of the
flag, did such a (|ueer concourse combine to pro-
cure a staff to float Old Glory.

The carpenters among the volunteers spliced
the two pieces of timber together and soon
fashioned a beautiful flagstaff a hundred and
fifty feet in length. The pole was raised near

what is now the southeast comer of North Broad-
way and Fort Moore Place. By the first of Julv
work had so far progressed on the fort that Col.
-Stevenson decided to dedicate and name it on
the 4th. He issued an official order for the
celebration of the anniversary of the birthday of
.\merican Independence at this port, as he called
Los Angeles. The following is a synopsis of the
order : "At sunrise a Federal salute will be
fired from the field work on the hill, which com-
mands this town, and for the first time from
this point the American standard will be dis-
played. At 10 o'clock every soldier at this post
will be under arms. The detachment of the
7th Regiment, N. Y. \'oIunteers, and ist Regi-
ment, U. S. Dragoons (dismounted), will be
marched to the field work on the hill, when, to-
gether with the Mormon battalion, the whole
will be formed at 1 1 o'clock A. M. into a hollow
square, when the Declaration of Independence
will be read. At the close of this ceremony the
field work will be dedicated and appropriately
named: and at 12 o'clock a national salute will
be fired. The field work at this post having
been planned and the work conducted entirely
by Lieut. Davidson of the First Dragoons, he is
requested to hoist upon it for the first time, on
the morning of the 4th, the American Standard.
It is the custom of our country to confer on its
fortifications the name of some distinguished
individual who has rendered important services
to his country either in the councils of the na-
tion or on the battlefield. The commandant has
therefore determined, unless the department of
war shall otherwise direct, to confer upon the
field work erected at the port of Los Angeles
the name of one who was regarded by all who
had the pleasure of his acquaintance as a perfect
specimen of an American officer, and whose
character for every virtue and accomplishment
that adorns a gentleman was only equalled by
the reputation he had acquired in the field for
his gallantry as an officer and soldier, and his
life was sacrificed in the conquest of this terri-
tory at the battle of San Pasqual. The com-
mander directs that from and after the 4th in-
stant it shall bear the name of Moore."

Benjamin D. Moore, after whom the fort was
named, 'was captain of Co. A, First \J. S. Dra-
goons. He was killed by a lance thrust in the
disastrous charge at San Pasqual. Capt. Stuart
Taylor at this celebration read the Declaration
of Independence in English, and Stephen C.
Foster read it in Spanish. The native Cali-
fornians seated on their horses in rear of the
soldiers listened to Don Estevan as he rolled
out in sonorous Spanish the Declaration's ar-
raignment of King (ieorge IIT. and smiled.
Tli'oy had prol);d)Iy never heard of King George

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

or the Declaration of Independence either, but
they knew a pronunciamiento when they heard
it, and after a pronunciamiento in their govern-
mental system came a revolution — therefore
they smiled at the prospect of a gringo revolu-
tion. The old fort was located along the east-
erly line of what is now North Broadway at its
intersection with Fort Moore Place. It began
near the northerly line of Dr. \\'ills' lot and ex-
tended southerly to the fourth lot south of Fort
?iIoore Place, a length of over 400 feet. It was
a breastwork with bastions and embrasures for
cannon. The principal embrasure covered the
church and plaza. It was built more for the
suppression of a revolt than to resist an invasion.
It was a strong position ; two hundred men,
about its capacity, could have defended it against
one thousand if the attack came from the front,
but it could easily have been outflanked.

In the rear of the fort a deep ravine ran
diagonally from the cemetery to Spring street
just south of Temple. The road to the ceme-
tery led up this ravine and many an old Cali-
fornian made his last journey in this world up
cemetery ravine. It was known as the Canada
de Los Muertos (the canon of the dead). The
-l-th of July, 1847, was a crackerless 4th. The
American boy with his fireworks was not in evi-
dence, and the native muchacho knew as little
about firecrackers as hf did about the 4th of
July. The day's festivities ended with a fan-
dango. The fandango was a universal leveler.
Mormon and Mexican, native Californians and
spruce shoulder-strapped Regulars met and
mingled in the dance. The day ended without
a casualty and at its close even the most recalci-
trant paisano was constrained to shout Viva Los
Estados Unidos ! (Long live the LTnited States.)

One of the historical fictions that appears in
most of the "write ups" of this old fort is the
statement that it was built by Fremont. There
is absolutelv no foundation for such a statement.

Emory's fort was begun before Fremont's bat-
talion reached Los Angeles, and work ceased
on it when Stockton's sailors and marines left
the city. Davidson's fort was begun while the
battalion was at San Gabriel, a short time before
it was mustered out. Fremont left for Monterey
shortly after the Alornion battalion began work
on the redoubt; and when it was completed, or
rather when work stopped on it, he had left
California and was somewhere in the neigh-
borhood of the Rocky mountains. Neither is
there any foundation for the story that the forti-
fication was begun by ^^licheltorena when Com-
modore Jones captured Monterey, October hj.
1842. It was not known in early times as l"re-
mont's redoubt.

Another silly fiction that occasionally makes
its appearance in newspapers and literary jour-
nals is the story that an old adobe building
on ]Main near Fourteenth street was Fremont's
h.eadquarters when he was "military com-
mander" of the territory. As I write there lies
before me a copy of an illustrated eastern journal
of extensive circulation, in which appears a cut
of this ex-saloon and ]5resent Chinese wash
house labeled "Fremont's Headquarters." Not
long since a literary journal of our own city, in
an editorial, urged upon the Historical Society
and the Landmarks Club the necessity of pre-
serving this valuable historical relic of Fremont's
occupancy of Los Angeles in the war. The idiocy
of a commanding officer establishing his head-
quarters on a naked plain two miles away from
the fort where his troops were stationed and
within what would then have been the enemy's
lines seems never to have occurred to the au-
thors and promulgators of these fictions. This
old adobe house was built six or eight years after
the conquest of California. In 1856 it was used
for a saloon ; Fremont was then a candidate
for the presidency. The proprietor named it
Fremont's Headquarters.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XXI.

TREATY OF CAHUENGA— TRANSITION.

JT S STATED in a [ormcr chapter, Frc-
T^ niont's battalion began its march down
± \_ the coast on the 29th of November, 1846.
The winter rains set in v>ith great severity. The
volunteers were scantily provided with clothing
and the horses were in poor condition. Many
of the horses died of starvation and hard usage.
The battalion encountered no opposition from
the enemy on its march and did no fighting.

On the nth of January, a few miles above
San Fernando, Col. Fremont received a message
from Gen. Kearny informing him of the defeat
of the enemy and the capture of Los Angeles.
That night the battalion encamped in the mission
buildings at San Fernando. From the mission
that evening Jesus Pico, a cousin of Gen. An-
dres Pico, set out to find the Californian army
and open negotiations' with its leaders. Jesus
Pico, better known as Tortoi, had been arrested
at his home near San Luis Obispo, tried by
court-martial and sentenced to be shot for break-
ing his parole. Fremont, moved by the plead-
ings of Pico's wife and children, pardoned him.
He became a warm admirer and devoted friend
of Fremont.

He found the advance guard of the Califor-
nians encamped at Verdugos. He was detained
here, and the leading ofificers of the army were
summoned to a council. Pico informed them of
Fremont's arrival and the number of his men.
With the combined forces of Fremont and Stock-
Ion against them their cause was hopeless. He
urged them to surrender to Fremont, as they
could obtain better terms from him than from
Stockton.

Gen. Flores, who held a commission in the
Mexican army, and who had been appointed by
the territorial assembly governor and coman-
dante-gcneral by virtue of his rank, appointed
/\ndres Pico general and gave him command
of the army. The same night he took his de-
parture for Mexico, by way of .San Gorgonio
Pass, accompanied by Col. Garfias, Diego Se-
pulveda. Manuel Castro, Segura. and about
thirty privates. Gen. •Pico, on assuming com-
mand, appointed Francisco Rico and Francisco
de La Gucrra to go with Jesus Pico to confer
with Cul. I'Vemonl. Fremont appointed as com-
missioners to negotiate a treaty: Major P. P>.
j-tcading. Major \\'illi:nn If. Kussdl .nnd Capt.

Louis McLane. On the return of Guerra and
Rico to the Californian camp. Gen. Andres Picn
appointed as commissioners : Jose Antonio Car-
rillo, commander of the cavalry squadron, and
Augustin Olvera, diputado of the assembly, and
moved his army near the river at Cahuenga.
On the 13th Fremont moved his camp to the
Cahuenga. The commissioners met in the de-
serted ranch-house, and the treaty was drawn
up and signed.

The principal conditions of the treaty or capit-
ulation of "Cahuenga," as it was termed, were
that the Californians, on delivering up their ar-
tillery and public arms, and promising not again
to take up arms during the war, and conforming
to the laws and regulations of the United States,
shall be allowed peaceably to return to their
homes. They were to be allowed the same
rights and privileges as are allowed to citizens
of the Ignited States, and were not to be com-
pelled to take an oath of allegiance until a treaty
of peace was signed between the United States
and Mexico, and w-ere given the privilege of
leaving the country if they wished to. An adtli-
tional section was added to the treaty on the
16th at Los Angeles releasing the officers from
their paroles. Two cannon were surrendered,
the howitzer captured from Gen. Kearny at San
Pasqual, and the woman's gun that won the bat-
tle of Dominguez. On the 14th, Fremont's bat-
talion marched through the Cahuenga Pass to
Los Angeles in a pouring rainstorm, and entered
it four days after its surrender to Stockton. The
conquest of California was completed. Stock-
ton approved the treaty, although it was not alto-
gether satisfactory to him. On the i6th he ap-
pointed Col. Fremont governor of the terri-
tory, and William H. Russell, of the battalion,
secretary of state.

This precipitated a quarrel between Stockton
and Kearny, which had been brewing for some
time. Gen. Kearny claimed that under his in-
structions from the government he should bo
recognized as governor. .\s he had directly un-
der his command but the one company of dra-
goons that he brought across the plain with him
he was unable to enforce his authority. He left
on the i8tli for San Die,go, taking with him his
officers and dragoons. ( )n the 20th Conmio-
(liivc ."^tdckton, with his sailors and marines.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

113

maiclitd to San Pedro, where they all embarked
on a man-of-war for San Diego to rejoin their
ships. Stockton was shortly afterwards super-
seded in the command of the Pacific squadron
by Commodore Shubrick.

Fremont was left in command at Los Angeles.
He established his headquarters in the upper
(second) floor of the Bell block, corner of Los
Angeles and Aliso streets, the best building in
the city then. One company of the battalion was
retained in the city ; the others, under command
of Capt. Owens, were quartered at the Mission
San Gabriel. From San Diego, Gen. Kearny
sailed to San Francisco, and from there he went
to Monterey. Under additional instructions from
the general government brought to the coast by
Col. Mason, he established his governorship at
Monterey. With a governor in the north and
one in the south antagonistic to each other,
California had fallen back to its normal condition
under Mexican rule. Col. Cooke, commander
of the Mormon battalion, writing about this
time, says : "Gen. Kearny is supreme somewhere
up the coast ; Gen. Fremont is supreme at Pu-
eblo de Los Angeles ; Commodore Stockton is
commander-in-chief at San Diego ; Commodore
Shubrick the same at Monterey ; and I at San
Luis Key ; and we are all supremely poor, the
government having no money and no credit, and
we hold the territory because Mexico is poorest
of all !"

Col. R. B. Mason was appointed inspector of
the troops, and made an official visit to Los An-
geles. In some disagreement he used insulting
language to Col. Fremont. Fremont promptly
challenged him to fight a duel. The challenge
was accepted, and double-barreled shotguns
were chosen as the weapons and the Rancho
Rosa del Castillo chosen as the place of meeting.
Mason was summoned north, and the duel was
postponed until his return. Kearny, hearing of
it, put a stop to it.

Col. P. St. George Cooke, commander of the
Mormon battalion, but an officer of the regular
army, was made commander of the military dis-
trict of the south, with headquarters at Los An-
geles. Fremont's battalion was mustered out of
the service and Fremont himself ordered to re-
l)ort to Gen. Kearny at Monterey and turn over
the papers and accounts of his governorship. He
(lid so, and passed out of office. He was nomin-
ally governor of the territory about two months.
His jurisdiction did not really extend beyond
Los Angeles. He accompanied Gen. Kearny
cast, leaving Los Angeles May 12, and Mon-
terey May 31. At Fort Leavenworth Gen.
Kearny placed him under arrest and preferred
charges against him for disobedience of orders.
He was tried by court-martial at Washington

and was ably defended by his father-in-law, Col.
Benton, and his brother-in-law, William Carey
Jones. The court found him guilty and fixed the
penalty — dismissal from the service. President
Polk remitted the penalty, and ordered Col. P're-
mont to resume his sword and report for duty.
He resigned his commission in the army.

Col. Richard B. JMason succeeded General
Kearny as commander-in-chief of the troops
and military governor of California. Col. Philip
St. George Cooke resigned command of the mil-
itary district of the south in May and went east
with Gen. Kearny. Col. J. D. Stevenson, of
the New York Volunteers, succeeded Cooke.
His regiment, the First New York, had been
recruited in eastern New York in the summer of
1846 for the double purpose of conquest and
colonization. It came to the coast well pro-
vided with provisions and implements of hus-
bandry. It reached California via Cape Horn.
The first transport, the Perkins, reached Yerba
Buena, March 6, 1847; t'^^ second, the Drew,
Alarch 19; and the third, the Loo Choo, March
26. Hostilities had ceased in California before
their arrival. Two companies, A and B, under
command of Lieut. -Col. Burton, were sent to
Lower California, where they saw hard service
and took part in several engagements. The
other companies of the regiment were sent to
different towns in Upper California to do gar-
rison duty. Companies E and G were stationed
at Los Angeles, Company F at Santa Barbara
and Company I at San Diego.

Col. Stevenson had under his command a
force of about 600 men, consisting of four com-
panies of the Mormon battalion, two companies of
United States Dragoons and the two companies
of his own regiment. The Mormon battalion was
mustered out in July, 1847; t'^^ ^ew York vol-
unteers remained in service until August, 1848.
Most of these volunteers remained in California
and several became residents of Southern Cali-
fornia.

Another military organization that reached
California after the conquest was Company F,
Third United States Artillery. It landed at Mon-
terey, January 28, 1847, under command of
Capt. C. Q. Thompkins. With it came Lieuts.
E. O. C. Ord, William T. Sherman and H. W.
Halleck, all of whom were prominent afterward
in California and attained national reputation
during the Civil war. Lieut. Ord made what
is known as Ord's survey of Los Angeles. After
the treaty of peace was made, in 1848, four com-
panies of U. S. Dragoons, under command of
Major L. P. Graham, marched from Chihuahua,
by way of Tucson, to California. Major Gra-
ham was the last military commander of the
south.

110

MKiCAL AND JJKJL.KAl'JliCAl. RliCORU.

Under Col. Stevenson's administration the
reconstruction, or rather it might be more ap-
propriately called the transformation, period re-
ally began. The orders from the general gov-
ernment were to conciliate the people and to
make no radical changes in the form of govern-
ment. The Mexican laws were continued in
force. In February an ayuntamiento was elected
at Los Angeles. The members were : First al-
calde, Jose Salazar; second alcalde, Enrique
Avila; regidores, Miguel N. Pryor, Julian Cha-
vez, Rafael Gallardo and Jose A. Yorba; sindico,
Jose Vicinte Guerrero ; secretary, Ignacio Cor-
onel.

This council proceeded to grant house lots
and perform its various municipal functions as
formerly. Occasionally there was friction be-
tween the military and civil powers, and there
were rumors of insurrections and invasions.
There were, no doubt, some who hoped that the
])rophecy of the doggerel verses that were de-
risively sung by the women occasionally might
Clime true :

"Poco tiempo
Viene Castro
Con mucho gente
Vamos Americanos."

But Castro came not with his many gentle-
men, nor did the Americans show any disposi-
tion to vamos ; so with that easy good nature
so characteristic of the Californians they made
the best of the situation. "A thousand things,"
says Judge Hays, "combined to smooth the as-
perities of war. Fremont had been courteous
and gay ; Mason was just and firm. The natu-
ral good temper of the population favored a
speedy and perfect conciliation. The American
officers at once found themselves happy in every
circle. In suppers, balls, visiting in town and
country, the hours glided away with pleasant
reflections."

There were, however, a few individuals who
were not happy unless they could stir up dis-
sensions and cause trouble. One of the chief
of these was Serbulo Varela — agitator and revo-
lutionist. Yarela, for some ofifense not specified
in the records, had been committed to prison
by the second alcalde, or judge of the second
instance. Col. Stevenson turned him out of
jail and Varela gave the judge a tongue lashing
in refuse Castilian. The judge's ofificial dignity
was hurt. He sent a communication to the ayun-
tamiento saying : "Owing to personal abuse
which I received at the hands of a private indi-
vidual and from the present military commander,
I tender my resignation."

The council sent a communication to Col.

.Stevenson, asking why he had turned N'arcla out
of jail and why he had insulted the judge.

The colonel curtly replied that the military
would not act as jailers over persons guilty of
trifling offenses while the city had plenty of per-
sons to do guard duty at the jail. As to abuse
of the judge, he was not aware that any abuse
had been given, and would take no further notice
of him unless he stated the nature of the insult
ofifered him.

The council decided to notify the governor of
the outrage perpetrated by the military com-
mander, and the second alcalde said, since he
could get no satisfaction for insults to his author-
ity from the military despot he would resign;
but the council would not accept his resignation,
so he refused to act, and the city had to worry
along with one judge.

When the time came around for the election of
a new ayuntamiento there was more trouble.
Stephen C. Foster, the colonel's interpreter,
submitted a paper to the council stating that
the government had authorized him to get up a
register of voters. And the ayuntamiento voted
to return the paper just as it was received. Then
the colonel made a demand of the council to
assist Esteban Foster in compiling a register
of voters. Regidor Chavez took the floor and
said such a register should not be gotten up
under the auspices of the military, but since the
government had so disposed, thereby outraging
this honorable body, no attention should be paid
to said communication. But the council de-
cided that the matter did not amount to much,
so they granted the request, much to the disgust
of Chavez. The election was held and a new
council elected. At the last meeting of the old
council, December 29, 1847, ^ol. Stevenson ad-
dressed a note to it, requesting that Stephen C.
Foster be recognized as first alcalde and judge
of the first instance. The council decided to
turn the whole business over to its successor,
to deal with as it sees fit.

Col. Stevenson's request was made in accord-
ance with the wish of Governor Jklason, that a
part of the civil offices be filled by Americans.
The new ayuntamiento resented this interfer-
ence.

How the matter terminated is best told in
Stephen C. Foster's own words: "Col. Steven-
son was determined to have our inauguration
done in style. So on the day appointed (Jan-
tiary i, 1848) he, together with myself and col-
league, escorted by a guard of soldiers, pro-
ceeded from the colonel's quarters (which were
in the house now occupied as a stable by Fer-
guson & Rose) to the alcalde's office, which was
where the City of Paris store now stands on
Main street. There we found the retiring ayun-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

11^

taniiento and the new one awaiting our arrival.
The oath of office was to be administered by
the retiring first alcalde. We knelt to take the
oath, when we found they had changed their
minds, and the alcalde told us that if two of their
number were to be kicked out they would all
go. So they all marched out and left us in pos-
session. Here was a dilemma ; but Col. Steven-
son was equal to the emergency. He said he
could give us a swear as well as the alcalde. So
we stood up and he administered to us an oath
to support the constitution of the United States
and administer justice in accordance with Mex-
ican law. I then knew as much about Mexican
law as I did about Chinese, and my colleague
knew as much as I did. Guerrero gathered up
the books that pertained to his office and took
them to his house, where he established his
office, and I took the archives and records across
the street to a house I had rented, where Perry
& Riley's building now stands, and there I was
duly installed for the next seventeen months,
the first American alcalde and carpet-bagger in
Los Angeles."

"The late Abel Stearns was afterwards ap-
pointed syndic. We had instructions from Gov-
ernor Mason to make no grants of land, but to
attend only to criminal and civil business and
current municipal aiifairs. Criminal offenders
had formerly been punished by being confined
in irons in the calaboose, which then stood on
the north side of the plaza, but I induced the
Colonel to lend me balls and chains and I had
a chain gang organized for labor on the public
works, under charge of a gigantic old Mexican
soldier, armed with a carbine and cutlass, w'ho
soon had his gang under good discipline
and who boasted that he could get twice as much
work out of his men as could be got out of the
soldiers in the chain gang of the garrison."

The rumors of plots and impending insurrec-
tions was the indirect cause of a serious catas-
trophe. On the afternoon of December 7, 1847,
an old lady called upon Col. Stevenson and in-
formed him that a large body of Californians
had secretly organized and fixed upon that night
for a general uprising, to capture the city and
massacre the garrison. The information was
supposed to be reliable. Precautions were taken
against a surprise. The guard was doubled and
a strong reserve stationed at the guardhouse,
which stood on the hillside about where Pieau-
dry's stone wall on the new High street is now.
A piece of artillery was kept at the guardhouse.
About midnight one of the outpost pickets saw,
or thought he saw, a horseman approaching him.
He challenged, but receiving no reply, fired.
The guard at the cuartel formed to repel an
attack. Investigation proved the picket's horse-

man to be a cow. The guard was ordered to
break ranks. One of the cannoneers had lighted
a port fire (a sort of fuse formerly used for firing
cannon). He was ordered to e.xtinguish it and
return it to the arm chest. lie attempted to ex-
tinguish it by stamping on it, and supposing he
had stamped the fire out, threw it into the chest
filled with ammunition. The fire rekindled and
a terrific explosion followed that shook the city
like an earthquake. The guardhouse was blown
to pieces and the roof timbers thrown into Main
street.

The wildest confusion reigned. The long roll
sounded and the troops flew to arms. Four men
were killed by the explosion and ten or twelve
wounded, several quite seriously. The guard-
house was rebuilt and was used by the city for a
jail up to 1853.

This catastrophe was the occasion of the first
civil marriage ever celebrated in Los Angeles.
The w-idow of Sergeant Travers, one of the sol-
diers killed by the explosion, after three months
of widowhood, desired to enter the state of
double blessedness. She and the bridegroom,
both being Protestants, could not be married in
the Catholic Church, and there was no minister
of any other denomination in the country. In
their dilemma, they applied to Alcalde Foster
to have a civil ceremony performed. The al-
calde was doubtful whether his powers admitted
of marrying people. There was no precedent
for so doing in Mexican law, but he took the
chances. A formidable legal document, still on
file in the recorder's office, was drawn up and
the parties signed it in the presence of witnesses,
and took a solemn oath to love, cherish, pro-
tect, defend and support on the part of the hus-
band, and the wife, of her own choice, agreed
to obey, love, serve and respect the man of her
choice in accordance w-ith the laws of the State
of New York. Then the alcalde declared James
C. Burton and Emma C. Travers man and wife,
and they lived happily ever afterwards. The
groom was a soldier in the service of the United
States and a citizen of the state of New York.

The treaty of peace between the United States
and Mexico was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a
hamlet a few miles from the city of Mexico,
February 2, 1848; ratifications were exchanged
at Queretaro, May 30 following, and a proclama-
tion that peace had been established between the
two countries was published July 4, 1848. Under
this treaty the United States assumed the pay-
ment of the claims of American citizens against
Mexico, and paid in addition $15,000,000 for
Te.xas, New Mexico and Alta California — an
area of nearly half a million square miles. Out
of what was the Mexican territory of Alta Cali-
fornia there has been carved all of California,

118

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

all of Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and pai't of
Colorado and Wyoming. The area acquired by
this territorial expansion equaled that of the
thirteen colonies at the time of the Revolution-
ary War.

I'io Pico arrived at San Gabriel, July 17, 1848,
on his return from Sonora. From San Fernando
he addressed letters to Col. Stevenson and Gov-
ernor Mason, stating that as Mexican Governor
of California he had come back to the country,
with the object of carrying out the armistice
which then existed between the United States
and Mexico. He further stated that he had no
desire to impede the establishment of peace be-
tween the two countries ; and that he wished to
see the Mexicans and Americans treat each
other in a spirit of fraternity. Mason did not
like Pico's assumption of the title of Mexican
Governor of California, although it is not prob-
able that Pico intended to assert any claim to
his former position. Mason sent a special cour-
ier to Los Angeles with orders to Col. Stevenson
to arrest the ex-governor, who was then at his
Santa Margarita ranch, and send him to Mon-
terey, but the news of the ratification of the
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reached Los An-
geles before the arrest was made and Pico was
spared this humiliation.

In December, 1848, after peace was restored,
.Alcalde Foster, under instructions from Gov-
ernor Mason, called an election for choosing an
ayuntamiento to take the place of the one that
failed to qualify. The voters paid no attention
to the call and Governor Mason instructed the
officers to hold over until the people chose to
elect their successors. In May a second call was
made under Mexican law. By this time the

voters had gotten over their indignation at being
made American citizens, nolens volens. They
elected an ayuntamiento which continued in
power to the close of the year. Its first session
was held May 21, 1849. First alcalde, Jose del
Carmen Lugo ; second alcalde, Juan Sepulveda :
regidores, Jose Lopez, Francisco Ocampo,
Thomas Sanchez ; syndic, Juan Temple ; secre-
tary, Jesus Guerado. All of these had been citi-
zens of Mexico, Juan Temple having been nat-
uralized twenty years before. The Governor's
wish to have Americans fill part of the city
offices was evidently disregarded by the voters.
Stephen C. Foster was appointed prefect Oc-
tober 29, 1849, by Governor Bennett Riley, the
successor of Governor Mason.

In December, 1849, the last ayuntamiento of
Los Angeles was elected. The members were :
First alcalde, Abel Stearns ; second alcalde, Yg-
nacio del \'alle; regidores, David Alexander,
Benito D. Wilson, Jose L. Sepulveda, Manuel
Garfias ; syndic, Francisco Figueroa : secretary,
Jesus Guirada. The legislature of 1849-50
passed an act incorporating Los Angeles (April
4, 1850) as a city. In the act of incorporation
its area is given as four square miles. During
its probationary state, from January, 1847, '-'nt'l
its incorporation as a city by the legislature, it
sometimes appears in the official records as a
pueblo (town) and sometimes as a ciudad (city).
For a considerable time after the conquest offi-
cial communications bore the motto of Mexico,
Dios y Libertad (God and Liberty). The first
city council was organized July 3, 1850, just four
years, lacking one day, after the closing session
of the ayuntamiento under Mexican rule had
been held.

PART SECOND.

THE COUNTIES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTER XXll.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY.

ORGANIZATION.

IN THE act dividing the state into counties,
approved February i8, 1850, San Diego is
the first county described ; and in number-
ing the senatorial and judicial districts of that
time, San Diego was number one. The county
included the whole southern end of the state, and
was then bounded on the north by Los Angeles
county ; on the east by the Colorado river ; on
the south by Lower California; on the west by
the Pacific Ocean and part of Los Angeles
county. Its area was 14,969 square miles. Its
population was 798, of which 650 were residents
of the town of San Diego.

The first county election was held April i,
1850. The officers elected were as follows : Wil-
liam C. Ferrell, district attorney ; John Hays,
county judge; Richard Rust, county clerk; T.
W. Sutherland, county attorney ; Henry Clay-
ton, county surveyor; Agostin Harazthy, sher-
ifif; Henry C. Matsell, recorder; Jose Antonio
Estudillo, county assessor; John Brown, coro-
ner, and Juan Bandini, treasurer. Bandini did
not qualify, and Philip Crosthwaite was ap-
pointed by the court of sessions to fill the va-
cancy. The first term of the district court was
held in San Diego, May 6, 1850; O. S. With-
erby, judge, and Richard Rust, clerk.

THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.

The year 185 1 was marked by an Indian war,
or rather an Indian scare, for it could scarcely
be called a war. The Cohuilla Indians, at that
time quite numerous, inhabited the valleys of
the San Bernardino mountains, from San Gor-
gonio south to the l^lexican line. For some time
they had been stealing horses and cattle and an-
noying the settlers. Their chief was Antonio
Garra. He was an egotistical fellow. He con-
ceived the idea of a general uprising of the red
men and the extermination of the whites. He was
even vain enough to boast that he would capture

the fort at Yuma and with the cannon taken
there attack Los Angeles and San Diego. The
first outbreak was at Warner's ranch, about 60
miles easterly from San Diego.

J. J. Warner, a Connecticut Yankee, came to
California in 1831, as a trapper. He became a
naturalized citizen and obtained a grant from
the Mexican government of about 26,600 acres.
This he had stocked with cattle and horses and
was living" there at the time of the American
conquest. The Agua Caliente, or Hot Springs,
in the neighborhood of Warner's rancho, was
a favorite camping place of the Indians. War-
ner, besides his cattle and horses, kept a stock
of goods amounting to about $6,000. This was
partly to supply his vaqueros and other retainers
and partly to trade with the Indians. This dis-
play of wealth tempted the cupidity of the In-
dians and they plotted to massacre him and his
people to obtain plunder. He received warning
of their designs and sent his family under an
escort to San Diego. The morning after the
departure of his family he was awakened by the
yells of the Indians. Several horses, saddled
and bridled, were tied near the house, ready for
any emergency.

On hearing the cries of the Indians, Warner,
seizing his arms, rushed to the rear door to se-
cure the horses. They were all gone e.xcept
one, and an Indian was trying to unfasten it.
Warner shot the horse thief dead ; and two of
his companions who tried to get the horse were
sent to the happy hunting ground to join their
friend. Taking advantage of the temporary
panic into which the Indians had been thrown
by the shooting of three of their number, War-
ner seized a crippled nuilatto boy, servant of
an army officer who had sent him to the hot
springs to be treated for rheumatism, and, pla-
cing him in front, mounted his horse and rode
away amid a shower of arrows from two hun-
dred Indians. He made his escape unharmed,
but the Indians killed one of his servants.

120

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

l\carliiiiL; lln' camp whcix- his vatnuTDS iiiadi-'
thuir iK'adquartcrs, he rallicil a small Unxi.- uf
these and returned to the rancho, where he
found the Indians reveling in his stock of goods.
'I'hey stood on the defensive when attacked and
the cowboys, finding themselves so greatly out-
numbered, retreated. Warner was compelled
to follow suit, as he was not equal to a whole
tribe of Indians. He went to San Diego, where
Major Heintzelman was stationed with a force
of regulars, to procure assistance.

The alarm of an Indian uprising spread all
over the southern district. A company of vol-
unteers was raised at San Diego, of which Cave
J. Couts was made captain. It was called the
Fitzgerald \'olunteers. Major Fitzgerald had
command of all the militia at San Diego. A com-
pany of 35 men was raised at Los Angeles for
field service and another, of which B. D. Wilson
was captain, for home guards to protect the city
in case Antonio Garra should undertake to
carry out his threats. The officers of the field
company were: George B. Fitzgerald, captain;
John Jones, first lieutenant, and Roy Bean, sec-
ond lieutenant. The volunteers were under the
command of Gen. J. H. Bean. The regulars
and ■^e San Diego volunteers drove the Indians
into trie mountains and killed about 40 of them.
The Los Angeles volunteers, reinforced by
five men from the Mormon camp at San Ber-
nardino and 20 from Temecula, did considerable
scouting, but did not kill any hostiles.

Antonio Garra, chief of the Cohuillas, was
captured by the strategy (or perhaps it would
be more in accordance with the facts, by the
treachery) of Cabazon, chief of the White Water
Indians. He was sentenced to be shot. Stand-
ing on the edge of his open grave, he met his
death with stoical firmness. An American, Bill
-Marshall, and a Californian named Juan \'er-
dugo were found to have been implicated in the
raid on Warner's ranch. They were tried by a
court-martial and sentenced to be hanged. \'er-
dugo confessed his guilt, but Marshall died pro-
testing, to the last, his innocence. In the year
1852 four Indians implicated in the uprising were
captured and shot. This settled the Indian ques-
tion in San Diego for some time.

Col. Warner and his family returned to his
ranch after the Indian troubles were over. He
lived there until 1857. when he moved to Los
.\ngeles. He died in 1893, at the age of 87
vears.

E.\RI.V IITSTOKV OF TIIIC CITY .WO
IDENTICAt..

OITNTY

In 1850 and for a number of years after there
was no settlement in San Diego outside of the
citv that could be called a town. At each of the

l.-irgc raiicliiis tlK-ri_- was a small settlement made
u\) ni tin- servants and vai|Ueros and their fami-
lies. Some of tliese were designated as pre-
cincts when a general election was called, and at
a few some one acted as a justice of the peace.

The history of the county and of the city are
identical for nearly two decades. The back
coiuitry so often spoken of was undeveloped and
the very few events that happened at points
back from the bay are unimportant. The early
history of Old San Diego, or Old Town, as
it is usually called, has been given in the chap-
ter on the Founding of the Presidios.

The pueblo of San Diego was organized Jan-
uary I, 1835. It is not, as some writers have
claimed, the oldest municipality in California.
The pueblos of San Jose and Los Angeles ante-
date it many years. Los Angeles having passed
beyond the pueblo stage was made a ciudad
(city) the same year (1835) that the pueblo of
San Diego was organized. The first ayunta-
miento or town council, elected December, 1834,
was composed of an alcalde, two regidores and
a sindico procurador.

The first survey of the pueblo lands was made
by Henry D. Fitch in 1845. The Mexican gov-
ernment granted the pueblo eleven leagues or
47,234 acres. This grant to the pueblo was
confirmed by the United States Land Commis-
sion in 1853. San Diego was more fortunate
than Los Angeles, whose claim of sixteen square
leagues was cut down to four, or Santa Bar-
bara, which claimed eight, but had to be content
with four. San Diego in area, fifty years ago,
was the largest town in the United States. Its
boundary lines inclosed about 75 square miles :
its population, however, was less than ten to the
square mile.

ORIGIN' OF Ni;\V TOWN.

March 18, 1850, the ayuntamiento of San
Diego sold to \Villiani Heath Davis, Jose A.
Aguirre, Andrew B. Gray, Thomas D. Johns
and Miguel Pedrorena, 160 acres of land a few
miles south of Old Town, near the army bar-
racks, for the purpose of creating a "new port."
William Heath Davis, one of the oldest living
]Moneers of California, and author of "Sixty
Years in California," in an interview published
in the San Diego Sun some fourteen years ago,
gives the following account of the origin of
New Town :

"Of the new town of San Diego, now the city
of San Diego, I can say that I was its founder.
In 1850, the .\nierican and Mexican commis-
sions appointed to establish the boundary line
were at Old Town. Andrew B. Gray, the chief
engineer and surveyor for the United States,
wdio was with the commission, introduced him-

HISTORICAL AND jnOGRAPHICAL RFXORD.

121

srlf lu ni.' unc day at Old Town, in I'cbnuu} ,
1S50, he explained to mo the advantages of the
locality, known as 'I'uenta de los Muertos'
( Point of the Dead), from the circumstances that
in the year 1787 a Spanish squadron anchored
within a stone's throw of the present site of the
city of San Diego. During the stay of the fleet,
surveying the bay of San Diego for the first
time, several sailors and marines died and were
interred on a sand spit, adjacent to where my
wharf stood, and was named as above. The
piles of my struc^ire are still imbedded in the
sands as if there had been premeditation to mark
ihem as the tomb-marks of those deceased early
explorers of the Pacific ocean and of the inlet
of San Diego during the days of Spain's great-
ness. I have seen Puenta de los Muertos on
Pantoja's chart of his explorations of the waters
of the Pacific.

"Messrs. Jose Antonio Aquirre, Miguel de
Pedrorena, Andrew 15. Gray, T. D. Johns and
myself were the projectors of what is now known
as the city of San Diego. All my co-proprietors
have since died, and I remain alone of the party
and am a witness of the marvelous events and
changes that have since transpired in this vicin-
ity during more than a generation.

"The first building in new San Diego was put
up by myself as a private residence. The build-
ing still stands, being known as the San Diego
hotel. I also put up a number of other houses ;
the cottage built by .Andrew B. Gray is still
standing and is called "The Hermitage.' George
F. Hooper also built a cottage, which is still
standing near my house, in New San Diego.
Under the conditions of our deed we were to
build a substantial wharf and warehouse. The
other proprietors of the town deeded to me their
interest in block 20, where the wharf was to be
built. The wharf was completed in six months
after getting our title, in March, 1850, at a cost
of $60,000. The piles of the old wharf are still
to be seen on the old wharf site in block 20.
At that time I predicted that San Diego would
become a great commercial seaport, from its
fine geographical position and from the fact
that it was the only good harbor south of San
Francisco. Plad it not been for our Civil war,
railroads would have reached here years before
.Stanford's road was built, for our wharf was
ready for business."

The fate of this wharf of high anticijiations
and brilliant prospects was prosaic and com-
monplace. In 1862, some six hundred Union
troops en route to Arizona were quartered at
the army barrack near the wharf. The great
Hood of that year cut ofT for a time all comnui-
nication with the back country and detained the
troops there most of the winter. The supply

Ml I'lrewodd ran mil and llir weallier was cold —
Ml the "gallant si.x hundred,' led by the quarter-
master, charged the wharf and warehouse, and
when they were through charging all that was
left of that wharf was a few teredo-eaten piles.
The soldiers burned the wharf and warehouse
for fuel. Davis filed a claim against the gov-
ernment for $60,000 damages on account of the
destruction of his wharf and warehouse by the
soldiers. But the government did not "honor
the charge he made." After many delays Ids
claim was finally pared down to $6,000 and al-
lowed for that amount.

THE PIONEER NEWSP.VPER.

The pioneer newspaper of San Diego was the
Herald. The first number was issued May 2y,
1 85 1, only twelve days later than the first issue
of the Los Angeles Star, the pioneer newspaper
of Southern California. The San Diego Herald
was published by J. Judson Ames, a recent
arrival from Boston. His printing plant met
with a number of vicissitudes before it was
finally set up in Old Town. Ames, failing to
secure printing material in San Francisco, took
passage to New Orleans, where he bought an
office outfit. On his return the boat in which
his stock was stored upset in the Chagres river.
He fished out the greater part of his material,
but at Panama was attacked by the Chagres
fever and delayed some time. He finally reached
San Francisco just before the great fire of May,
1851. In that conflagration a part of his plant
was consumed. With the remnant that had
escaped fire and flood he reached San Diego and
established his paper. He must have been a
man of indomitable courage to have persevered
through all discouragements.

The outlook was not encouraging for the
building up of a great newspaper. The town
was small and non-progressive; a large portion
of its inhabitants were native Californians whose
early education had been neglected. There did
not seem to be a pressing need for a newspaper,
yet with all its uncongenial surroundings the
paper attained a widespread fame ; not, how-
ever, through its founder, but through a substi-
tute to whom for a time Ames entrusted the
editorial tripod, scissors and paste pot of the
Herald.

Lieut. George H. Derby, of the LTnited States
Topographical Corps, had been sent down by
the government in August, 1852, to superin-
tend the turning of the channel of the San Diego
river into False bay, to prevent it from carrying
sand into the bay of San Diego. Derby was a
wit as well as an engineer, and a famous cari-
caturist.

The Herald was intensely Democratic, and

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

wns supixniiny with all its slrciigth John i;i_^;-
Icr fur governor; the ^^'llig" L-an<liuatc in Un-
contest was William Waldo. Ames had a call
to San Francisco to see the Democratic leaders,
and no doubt hoped to be seen b)^ them with
much needed coin for his influence. Lieut.
Derby, better known by his noin dc plume, John
Phoenix, was entrusted with the editorial man-
agement of the paper during Ames' absence.
He could not let slip so good an opportunity
for a practical joke. Derby was a Whig, or at
least became one for the time being. He
changed the politics of the paper and turned the
shafts of ridicule against Bigler and the Demo-
cratic party. Bigler was dubbed Wigler and
Waldo, Baldo. Ames was confronted in San
Francisco by his party managers with the evi-
dence of his paper's recreancy, and his hopes
of subsidy vanished.

He returned to San Diego. Derby thus de-
scribes the meeting: "The Thomas Neunt
(steamer Thomas Hunt) had arrived and a
rumor had reached our ears that 'Boston' was
on board. Public anxiety had been excited to
the highest pitch to witness the result of the
meeting between us. It had been stated publicly
that 'Boston' would whip us the moment he ar-
rived, but though we thought a conflict probable,
we had never been very sanguine as to its ter-
minating in that manner. Coolly we gazed
from the window of the ofifice upon the New
Town road ; we descried a cloud of dust in the
distance; high above it waved a whip lash, and
we said, 'Boston' cometh, 'and his driving is
like that of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he
driveth furiously.' Calmly we seated ourselves
in the arm chair and continued our labors upon
our IMagnificent Pictorial. Anon a step, a heavy
step, was heard upon the stairs, and Boston
stood before us. * * * We rose and with
an unfaltering voice said, 'Well, Judge, how do
you do?' He made no reply, but commenced
taking off his coat. We removed ours, also our
cravat. * * * The sixth and last round is
described by the pressmen and compositors as
having been fearfully scientific. We held Bos-
ton down over the press by our nose (which we
had inserted between his teeth for that pur-
pose), and while our hair was employed in hold-
ing one of his hands we held the other in our
left and with the 'sheep's foot' brandished above
our head shouted to him, 'Say Waldo !' 'Never !'
he gasped.

" ■( )h ! my Bigler!' he would have muttered.
I'.ut that he dried up ere the word was ut-
tered.

"At this moment we discovered that we had

lierii lalioring luider a 'misimderstanding,' and
througli the amicable intervention of the press-
man, who thrust a roller between our faces
(which gave the whole affair a very different
complexion), the matter was finally settled on
the most friendly terms, and without prejudice to
the honor of either party." He closes his de-
scription with the statement that "the public
can believe precisely as much as they please :
if they disbelieve the whole of it, we shall not
be at all offended."

Lieut. Derby's caricatures very nearly got
Jiim into serious trouble. When Jefferson Davis
was secretary of war (1853 to 1857) he was
continually intermeddling in the small affairs of
army life and was very generally disliked by
army officers, with the exception of a few per-
sonal favorites. He tried to direct everything
from "a review down to the purchase of shoe
blacking." He changed the patterns of uni-
forms, arms and equipments several times. It
was after one of these changes that Lieut.
Derby, then stationed at Fort Yuma, sent Davis
a suggestion for a new uniform, illustrated by a
series of drawings. The principal improve-
ment in the new uniform was a stout iron hook,
which was to be sewed to the rear of the trousers
of each private soldier. The illustrations showed
the uses to which this hook could be put. In
one a soldier was shown on the march carry-
ing a camp kettle, tin cup and other effects sus-
pended from this hook ; in another, a row of
men were hung by their hooks on a fence fast
asleep ; they were thus prevented from taking
cold by sleeping' on the damp ground. In a third
a company was shown advancing in line of bat-
tle, each man having a rope attached to his
hook, the other end of which was held by an
officer in the rear, who could restrain him if he
advanced too rapidly, or haul him back if he
was wounded. When Secretary Davis received
tliese he was in a towering rage and he an-
nounced that day at a cabinet meeting that he in-
tended to have Lieut. Derby tried before a court-
martial "organized to convict," and sunmiarily
dismissed. But the other secretaries, who en-
joyed the joke, convinced him that if the affair
became public he would be laughed at. Davis,
who was utterly devoid of the sense of humor,
reluctantly abandoned his court-martial scheme.

Derby published a book under the title of
Phoenixiana. It contained a munber of his San
Diego articles and his famous military uniform
drawings. It had an immense sale for a time,
but has long been out of print. He died a few
years later of softening of the lirain.

The Herald, after Phoenix's departure, ceased
to be a magnificent ]iictorial. It suspended pub-
lication in i8s8 and never resumed.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

123

STEAMSHIPS AND OVERLAND MAIL.

During the decade between 1850 and i860
the town made but little growth. There was
considerable travel between it and the other
ports of the coast. In 1851 and for six or seven
years later, "the fast-sailing United States mail
steamer 'Ohio,' Captain Haley, will run as
a regular packet, making her trip once
in every two weeks between San Fran-
cisco and San Diego, touching at the in-
termediate points of Santa Cruz, Monterey,
San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and San Pe-
dro," so says an advertisement in the Los
Angeles Star of May 31, 1851. In 1853 and
1854 the "Southerner," of the Southern Accom-
modation Line, was making regular semi-
monthly trips between San Francisco and San
Diego, stopping at intermediate points. The
steamer "Sea Bird," of Goodwin & Co.'s line,
was making trips three times a month, leaving
San Francisco the 4th, 14th and 24th of each
month. The "Thomas Hunt" also was running
between San Francisco and San Diego. Once
a month the Panama steamer put into the port
with the eastern mail. In 1851 a semi-monthly
mail by land was established between Los An-
geles and San Diego.

But the event that promised the greatest out-
come for San Diego during the decade was the
establishment of an overland mail route between
San Antonio de Bexar, Tex., and San Diego.
The route was by the way of El Paso, Messillo,
Tucson and Colorado City (now Yuma) — 1,500
miles. The service was semi-monthly. The
contract was let to James E. Burch, the postal
department reserving "the right to curtail or
discontinue the service should any route subse-
((uently put under contract cover the whole or
any portion of the route."

The San Diego Herald, August 12, 1857, thus
notes the departure of the first train : "Tlie
pioneer mail train from San Diego to San An-
tonio, Tex., under the contract entered into by
the government with Mr. Jas. Burch, left here
on the yth inst. (August 9, 1857) at an
early hour in the morning, and is now push-
ing its way for the east at a rapid rate.
The mail was, of course, carried on pack ani-
mals, as will be the case until the wagons
which are being pushed across will have been
put on the line. The first train from this side
left in charge of Mr. R. W. Laine, who was
accompanied by some of the most active and
reliable young men in the county, the party
taking relay mules with them for use on the des-
ert. The intention is to push on at the rate of
fifty or sixty miles a day to Tucson, where, en-
tering the Apache country proper, a large party

will be organized to afiford proper protectiun
as far as El Paso del Norte or further if neces-
sary. The first mail from the other side has
not yet arrived, although somewhat overdue,
and conjecture is rife as to the cause of the
delay. Until the arrival of the next express
from Fort Yuma we will probably receive no
tidings from the country through which the mail
has to pass, but for our own part we see no
reason for alarm in the case. The train leaving
here took a large number of letters for Fort
Yuma, Tucson, Calabasas, El Paso, etc., in addi-
tion to the regular eastern mail." The eastern
arrived in a few days later and the San Diegans
went wild with joy and built in imagination a
city of vast proportions on the bay.

The service continued to improve and the
fifth trip from the eastward terminus "was made
in the extraordinary short time of twenty-six
days and twelve hours," and the San Diego
Herald on its arrival, October 6, rushed out
an extra "announcing the very gratifying fact
of the complete triumph of the southern route,
notwithstanding the croaking of many of the
opponents of the Administration in this state."
"The first mail," so said the extra, "from San
Diego had arrived at San Antonio in good style
and created naturally a great excitement, the
Texans taking fully as much interest in the es-
tablishment of the line as the Californians."

But the triumph of the "Southern route" was
of short duration. September, 1858, the stages
of the Butterfield line began making their semi-
weekly trips. This line came down the coast to
Gilroy, then througli the Pacheco Pass, up the
San Joaquin valley and by way of Fort Tejon
to Los Angeles ; then eastward by Temecula
and Warner's ranch to Yuma, then across Ari-
zona and New Mexico to El Paso, where it
turned north to St. Louis and Memphis, its east-
ern termini. San Diego and San Antonio were
sidetracked and the Southern route discon-
tinued.

OLD TOW X A.\l) NEW TOWN IN S'lATU OUO.

After this temporary spirt of enterprise, San
Diego lapsed into its old poco tiempo ways.
Old Town remained in statu quo and New
Town did not expand. There had been rumors
of a railroad in 1854 and in 1857, but the mut-
tering of the coming storm between the north
and the south had frightened capital and the
hope of a railroad had been given up. During
the Civil war, there were some troops always
at the barracks, sometimes one company, some-
times two or three. The soldiers stationed there
did not add much to the revenue oi the town.
The pay of a private was $13 a month in green-
backs, which, converted into coin at the rate

124

TITSTORICAL AND HIOriRAPHlCAL KFXoRD.

of lliirty t(i fort}- cciUs silver for a dollar cur-
rency, (lid not give the defenders of the coun-
try lavish amounts of spending money. A con-
siderable amount of the supplies for the troops
were landed at San Diego and sent to Fort
Yuma by wagon trains. This gave employment
to a number of men and teams and added to the
business of the town.

The drought years of 1863 and 1864 were not
so disastrous to San Diego as to some of the
other cow counties. The ranges were not so
heavily overstocked and there was more back'
country not covered by Spanish grants where
cattle could be driven wheii the feed was ex-
hausted on tlie other ranges.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY-Continued.

THE NEW ER.\.

UP TO 1867 San Diego town and county
had retained the Mexican customs and
conditions of early times more nearly un-
changed than any other town or county in the
state. Their awakening from a Rip Van Winkle
sleep, not of twenty years, but of twenty lus-
trums, was the work of one man. April 6,
1867, Alonzo E. Ilorton landed in San Diego.
He had come dow^n from San Francisco to build
a city. The outlook was not encouraging. Old
Town was appropriately named; anything new
in it would be out of place. It had the appear-
ance of having been finished years before and
then forgotten. New Town consisted of the
government barracks, officers' quarters, the
piles of the Davis wharf and a few houses that
had escaped the "wreck of matter" the soldiers
had made. Horton was not discouraged. The
bay was there. The climate was there and there
he determined to build a city.

Horton induced the town trustees to offer
a tract of land lying east of New Town on the
shore of the l)ay for sale. .\t the public sale
in May, 1867, he bid off a tract of nearly 900
acres of the pueblo lands at twenty-six cents
an acre, and had it surveyed and platted as Hor-
ton's Addition to San Diego. The tract is now
the center of the city of San Diego. He put
his tract on sale. It went slowly, very slowly
at first. His returns for the year 1867 were
but $3,000. He gave away land to any one
who would agree to make substantial improve-
ments. He deeded lots to churches, for hotels
and other improvements. He built a wharf, and
in 1869 began the erection of the Horton House,
the largest hotel at that time in Southern Cali-
fornia.

The seed that he had sown now began to
bear fruit. The ruiuor that there was a citv
building on the bay of San Diego had gone
abroad, and ])eoplc came to buy lots. .Vnother
nuuor, too, had been si)read, and that was that

the long-talked-of thirty-second parallel railroad
was a certainty. Tom Scott hail taken hold of
it and Tom Scott was a power in railroad cir-
cles. In 1868, immigration had begun to drift
southward and find lodgment in the coast coun-
ties. In the fall of 1869, the drift was to San
Diego, and it resembled an old-time "gold
rush." The author has a vivid recollection of
a voyage down the coast in the old Senator
in the fall of '69. Every berth had been sold a
week before the vessel sailed, and then the
agents of the company sold standing room.
The steamer's cooks and waiters commenced
feeding the passengers about six o'clock in the
morning and kept it up with slight interruptions
till nine at night. The dining saloon was small
and the crowd on board necessitated the setting
of the tables many times. When all had been
fed the tables were cleared, the passengers
without berths bunked on the tables, under the
tables, or wherever they could spread their
blankets. All or nearly all were bound to San
Diego to buy lots. The railroad was coming :
San Diego was destined to rival San Francisco,
and the lot buyers wanted to grow up with
the city. Many of the speculators wore old t'ali-
fornians wdio had not struck it rich, but were
sure they were on the right road now. One oM
'49er, in the spring of 1850, had owned a lot on
Montgomery street, San Francisco, and had
sold it for $400; now it w'as worth $100,000:
he would secure a lot in San Diego and hold
on to it and grow in wealth as the town grew in
size. And so the talk ran all day and far into
the night, of bay and climate, of house lots and
business blocks, of transcontinental railroads
and Oriental steamships, which were sure to
build up a mighty metropolis in the Southland.
.Vugust 4, 1868, Joseph Nash erected the first
store in New Town. Its entire population then
nuiubered twenty-three souls. In the spring of
: S70 the city had upwards of 800 buildings, with
a pojiulation of 3,000. .\mong its substantial
impriivements were two magnificent wharves.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

costing in the aggregate $80,000; a flouring
mill with a capacity of 300 barrels a day ; sev-
eral warehouses, half a dozen hotels, two brew-
■eries, a boot and shoe factory, a bank and two
newspapers.

The Horton House was coniplcted and
opened October 20, 1870. It cost nearly $150,-
000 and was then "the most elaborate, attractive
and spacious hotel outside of San Francisco."
The editor of tiie Bulletin, in a two-column
write-up of its attractions, classifies it with the
great hotels of the world ; his enumeration of
tlie great hostelries of 30 years ago is interest-
ing. Some of them have fallen from their high
estate. He says : "What the Grand Hotel is
to Paris ; Langham's to London ; the Astor,
Fifth Avenue and St. Nicholas to New York ;
the Continental to Philadelphia ; the Tremont
and Parker's to Boston ; Barnum's to Balti-
more ; St. Charles to New Orleans ; the Gait to
Louisville : the Southern to St. Louis ; the Sher-
man and Tremont to Chicago ; the Grand, Lick,
Occidental and Cosmopolitan to San Francisco,
and the Pico House to Los Angeles, the Horton
House is to San Diego." S. W. Churchill was
its first manager.

The act authorizing the construction of the
Thirty-Second Parallel, the Southern Trans-
Continental, the Southern Pacific, the Texas Pa-
cific Railroad (for it was called by all these
names) failed to pass at the session of congress
in 1869-70: but at the next session it passed by
a two-thirds vote on the 3d of March, 1871.
Then there was great rejoicing in the city by
the bay. The Bulletin says : "As we go to press
our city is in a blaze of glory. Fifth street looms
up like an immense conflagration. Bon-fires,
fireworks, anvil firing and rejoicing are the order
of the night." x\nd they had cause to rejoice.
For years they had been yearning for a railroad
with that "hope deferred that maketh the heart
sick" : and now their longings were soon to be
satisfied by the "Greatest Railroad of the Age,"
as the JVashiu_^ton Chronicle pronounced it.
That paper said : "Xo act of the Forty-first
Congress will be longer remembered to its
credit than that authorizing the construction of
a great trans-continental iron highway from the
eastern boundary of Texas, near Marshall, via
El Paso, to the town of San Diego, on the bay
of that name in the state of California." How
transitory is fame ! Both the railroad and the
Forty-first Congress have long since been for-
gotten !

The act of congress authorizing tlie build-
ing of the railroad settled the (juestion in the
minds of the San Diegans. To doubt its build-
ing was treason to San Diego. The future of
the citv was assured; and a brilliant future it

was — San Diego, the seaport of the Occident
and the entrepot of the Orient. Branch roads
were projected into the back country. San
Bernardino was clamoring for railroad connec-
tion with the metropolis of the south, and Tom
Scott was making overtures to Los Angeles for
a coast railroad from that city to San Diego.
The trade of the Orient would eventually pass
through San Diego to the east. There were
rumors of an Oriental steamship company in the
formative stage. The Panama steamers began
stopping at the port, and the Bulletin said: "\\'e
hail this event as only second to that in which
is recorded the passage of the Southern Pacific
Railroad bill." The prices of real estate went
up ; indeed, under the circumstances it would
have been impossible to keep them down. The
Bulletin of ^larch 25 says : "The real-estate
transactions of the past week are larger than
ever before in the history of San Diego and must
appear rather nauseating to those newspapers
which have been sneering at San Diego for the
past year. By the way, we know a gentleman
of San Jose who purchased a block on Fifth
street two years ago for $600 and was damned
by a paper of his town for so doing. He has
been offered $8,000 for the same since the bill
passed."

Horton sold $83,000 worth of lots in two
months after the passage of the bill and a num-
ber of real-estate agents were doing their best to
supply the demand. The boomer.^ like Sila-;
Wegg dropped into poetry and a song first sung
at a concert in Horton"s Hall became the popu-
lar ditty of San Diego. I give a few sample
stanzas :

"Away to the west, where the sun goes down.

Where the oranges grow by the cargo,
They've started a town, and are doing it up
brown,

( )n the bay of San Diego.

"The railroad, they say, is coming that way,
.\nd then they'll be neighbors to Chicago ;

So the)- built a big hotel, and built it mightv
well,
In the town of San Diego."

* * 5|: :»

Moral :
"Let's take an early train and haste with miglu
and main.
By lightning express if you say — go,
\\'here every man's a fortune in a lot that costs
him naught,
hi Ihe town of San Diego."

.\pril 14. 1871. the postmaster-genera! or-
dered a change of the name of the postofTice at

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

South San Diego to San Diego. So New Town,
South San Diego and Horton's Addition became
simply San Diego.

December 27, 1871, an election was held to
vote upon the issue of bonds to the amount of
$100,000 to be proffered to any railroad com-
pany that would build a railroad connecting San
Bernardino with San Diego. The bond issue
was carried with an overwhelming majoiity.
San Bernardino also held an election and voted
a bond issue equal to five per cent of its taxable
propertv for the same purpose.

The Bay Shore & Coast Road to Los Angeles
met with disaster. At the election held in Los
Angeles county to vote on the issue of railroad
bonds, the Texas Pacific Coast Line and the
Southern Pacific to Yuma were competitors.
The Southern Pacific won, securing bonds and
other subsidy to the amount of $610,000.

Li 1872, "Father" Horton, as he was famil-
iarly called, erected a large building for the
Texas Pacific Railroad offices, but the employes
of that corporation never occupied it. It was
afterward used as a city hall. Grading was
begun on the roadbed of the Texas Pacific in
the latter part of 1872, but was not pushed with
a great deal of vigor. About twelve miles of
roadbed in all were graded.

In 1873 came a financial crash. "Black Fri-
day in Wall street" was followed by one of the
worst panics that ever struck the country. For-
tunes crumbled, banks failed, capital hid, railroad
building stopped. Enterprises that had prom-
ised large returns were dropped immediately.
Work on the Texas Pacific ceased and was
never resumed.

San Diego during its bourn had grown to be
a city of 5,000 inhabitants. When work ceased
on the railroad the population began to dwindle
away. Building in the city ceased. There was
nothing to do to earn a living. People could
not live on climate, however invigorating, so
they left. Father Horton, during flush times,
liad sold a number of lots to working men on
the installment plan. They came to him and
offered to give up the lots and let him retain
the money i>aid if he would cancel their con-
tracts. With a generosity unknown in real-
estate deals he refunded all the money they had
paid and released them of their obligations. In
1875 the population hail dwindled down to about
1.500, and these were living largely on faith,
hope and climate.

The Kimball brothers, owners of the Ranclio
de la Nacion, had, during the flush times of the
early '70s, laid off a town on the bay about four
miles distant from San Diego, and named it
National Cily. It had shared in tiie ups and
downs of the larger citv.

A NEW KAILKOAD SCllEMi:.

In 1880 the Kimballs began agitating the
project of inducing the Atchison, Topeka& Santa
Fe Railroad, that had built out into New Mexi-
co, to continue its road to San Diego and
National City. They met with but little encour-
agement at home. T'or thirty years the people
of San Diego had been talking Pacific railroad
and their town was no nearer being the terminus
of a trans-continental road in '80 than it was in
'50. But the Kimballs persisted. One of the
Kimball brothers went east at his own expense
and presented his scheme to capitalists and rail-
road men. He met with little success at first,
but the offer of 17,000 acres of land on the bay
for workshops and terminal grounds induced the
directors of the road to investigate the propo-
sition. Other parties owning land contiguous
offered additional grants. The railroad company
accepted the subsidy and work was begun on
the road ; and in August, 1882, the California
Southern, as the road was then called, was com-
pleted to Colton, on the Southern Pacific ; and
in 1884 to San Bernardino. There it stopped.
The great flood of 1884 destroyed the track in
the Temecula canon and once more San Diego
was without railroad connection. In 1885 the
road through the canon had Ijeen rebuilt and
trains were running over it. During the same
year the work of extending the California South-
ern to Barstow, a station on the Atlantic & Pa-
cific, was begun, and early in 1887 was com-
pleted. This road and the connecting roads —
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Atlantic
& Pacific — formed a trans-continental system of
which San Diego and National City were the
western termini.

\\'ith the rebuilding of the California South-
ern through the cafion in 1885, and the begin-
ning of work on its extension, the cloud of de-
spondency that had darkened the hopes of the
.San Diegans began to lift a little : as work pro-
gressed and a trans-continental line became
more of a certainty, capitalists and speculators
came to the town to look around. The old-
timers who had loaded up with lots in the boom
of 1871-72 and had held on through all the inter-
vening years, simply because they could not
let go without losing all, began quietly to unload
on the newcomers. The old resident had faith
— faith unbounded — in the future of the citw
but out of charity to the lot-less he was willing
to divide a good thing; and when the transfer
was made he chuckled over his smartness. But
when the buyer turned over his purchase at
an advance ' of twenty-five or fifty per

and at tlie next transfer, when the price ad-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

137

vanccd a liumlrcd per cent, the sigh increased
to a groan.

As the reverberations of the boom grew
louder the faithful old inhabitant turned specula-
tor himself and loaded up perhaps with a single
lot of the block he had formerly sold, at a price
a hundred per cent higher than he had received
for the entire tract. In the spring and summer
of 1887, speculation ran riot in the streets of
San Diego. Prices of real estate went up until
it seemed as if they could go no higher ; then
some adventurous investor would break the rec-
ord and the holders along the line would mark
up the price of their holdings. Business lots,
that a few years before were a drug on the mar-
ket at $25 a front foot, found buyers at $2,500
a foot. A small-sized store room rented all the
way from $300 to $500 a month for business, and
if cut up into stalls for real estate brokers,
brought in a thousand a month. Small and
poorly furnished sleeping rooms rented all the
way from $25 to $50 a month, prices varying
with the landlord's cupidity and the tenant's
necessity. The prices of labor kept pace with
speculation. Carpenters received $5 to $6 a
day, bricklayers $6 to $8. Barbers asked twenty-
five cents for a shave and printers earned $50 to
$60 a week.

The fame of San Diego's boom spread abroad.
The trains came in loaded with speculators,
boomers, gamblers and bona fide home-seekers.
In the wild gold rush of the early '50s it was
a common saying among old Californians "that
renegade ministers made the most adroit gam-
blers." So in the boom of '87 the confiding
home-seeker often proved to be the most un-
scrupulous operator. At one time during the
height of the boom it was estimated that the
city had a population of 50,000 people. It was
a cosmopolitan conglomeration. .Mmost every
civilized nation on earth was represented ; and
every social condition, high and low, good and
bad, was there, too.

The excitement was not confined to San
Diego city. It s]iread over the county. New
towns were founded. The founder in selecting
a location was governed more by the revenue
that might accrue from his speculation than by
the resources that would build up his inchoate
metropolis. It might be platted on an inaccessi-
ble mesa, where view was the principal resource,
or it might be a hyphenated cily-by-the-sea,
where the investor might while away his time
listening to what the wild waves were saying
and subsist on climate.

It is said that two town sites extended out
over the bay like Mark Twain's tunnel that was
• bored through the hill and a hundred and fifty
feet into the air. When the fever of speculation

was at its height it mattered little where the town
was located. A tastefully lithographed map
with a health-giving sanatorium in one corner,
a tourist hotel in the other, palms lining the
streets, and orange trees in the distance — add to
these picturesque attractions a glib-tongued
agent, untranuiieled by conscience and unac-
quainted with truth, and the town was success-
fully founded. Purchasers did not buy to hold,
but with hope of making a quick turn at an
advance, while the excitement was on. \'ery
few had confidence in the permanency of high
prices, but every one expected to unload before
the crash came.

The tourist crop of the winter of 1887-88 was
expected to be very large, but it did not mature.
As the eventful year of 1887 drew to a close
and new victims ceased to appear, he who
had loaded up for the tourist began to look
around quietly for a chance to unload on his fel-
lows. Then he discovered to his dismay that'
all the others were at the same game. Then
the crash came. The speculator who held the
last contract could not pay ; the one before him
could not meet his obligations miless the man
to whom he had sold paid up ; and so it went
all along the line like a row of bricks set on end.
The end one toppling over the one next to it
starts the movement down the line, and all go
down. Before the ides of March had passed
every speculator was vainly trying to save some-
thing from the wreck. Those who had invested
recklessly in boom towns and dry lands lost all ;
those who had some good unincumbered prop-
erty in a town or city with a future managed
to save a little out of the crash, but "capitalist"
no longer followed their names in the directory.

No better criterion probably can be given for
measuring the great inflation of property values
during the boom tlian the countv assessment
rolls for 1887 and 188S. The valuation of all
pioperty macle by the county assessor at the be-
ginning of the boom early in 1887 ^^'3'' $22,862,-
250. The assessed value fixed early in 1888 be-
fore the collapse had begun was $41,522,608, an
increase of almost one hundred per cent in
twelve months. In iSqo the assessment had
contracted to $26,871,551.

But with all its wild extravagance, its reckless-
ness, its gambling, its waste and its ruined "mil-
lionaires of a day," the boom to San Diego was
a blessing in disguise. It projected enterprises
of merit as well as those of demerit. It helped
to make a reality of that "back country" that for
years had been a myth, and it brought about
the building of a substantial city of what had
before been a crude and inchoate burgh. Strange
to say, too, the great enterprises projected dur-
ing tiic boom were all carried on to completion.

128

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

notuithstanding the liard times that followed.
Depression did not stop progression.

The San Dici^o Sun, two years after the boom,
summing up what had been done since, says :
"Since 1887, the Cuyamaca Railway has been
built and motor lines extended at a cash outlay
of $350,000; the Spreckel's Company has put
$250,000 into a wharf and coal bunkers ; all our
business streets have been paved; a $100,000
court-house built and paid for; three line school-
houses, and all our big hotels except two con-
structed. Five miles of cable road have been
built and put in operation ; a fine public library
has been established ; a new opera-house will
soon be completed. The adjacent mining regions
have yielded at least $1,000,000 in gold. The
great irrigating works of the Sweetwater dam
and San Diego flume, involving an expense of
$2,500,000, have been constructed, and water
supplied at the lowest western prices. Not less
tlian fifteen elegant business blocks have been
built, and several fine churches. Over a hun-
dred new residences have been built on Flor-
ence Heights alone. To sum it all up, $10,000,-
000 have been invested in San Diego and its en-
virons since 1887, and the back country has ob-
tained and planted 600,000 fruit trees ; which,
with those already out, promise to fill, seven
years hence, 10,000 freight cars with merchant-
able products."

The Federal census of 1890 gave the popula-
tion of county as 34,987; and that of the city
16,159. It was charged that the census of the
city was very incorrectly taken and that the
real population was over 20,000.

During the years 1889 and 1890 the city and
county were recovering from the depression
caused by the collapse of the boom, but 1891
was a year of disasters. February 22, a great
flood entirely destroyed the railroad track
through the Temecula canon. The road through
the canon has never been rebuilt. During the
same storm the Tia Juana River, that is usually
a dry sand wash, became a tremendous torrent,
spreading out until it was as wide as the Colo-
rado in a spring rise. The town on the Amer-
ican side was entirely washed away, and of that
on the Mexican only the houses on upper Mesa
were left. The Ota'y Watch Works, started in
18S7, and at one time employing over one hun-
dred operatives, suspended and the employes
were compelled to leave.

In October the California National Bank,
with more than a million dollars in deposits,
failed. The Savings Bank connected with it
went down, too, in the crash. Neither ever re-
sumed business. Their afTairs were placed in the
hands of a receiver. .-\ few small dividends were
paid the depositors, but the bulk of the deposits

were lost by bad management, wild speculation
and the doubtful business methods of J. W. Col-
lins and his partner, D. D. Dare. Collins was
arrested, and shortly afterwards committed sui-
cide. Dare, who was in Europe at the time of
the failure, never returned to San Diego.

February 7, 1892, the Pacific Mail steamers
began stopping again at San Diego for passen-
gers and freight. The wharf of the United
States government station at La Playa was com-
pleted April 25, 1892. The cable road was ex-
tended to the Mission ClifT in July, 1892.

By an act of the Legislature, approved March
1 1, 1893, 6,418 square miles were taken from the
northern part of San Diego to form the new
county of Riverside. The new county appropri-
ated $3,849,1 14 of the old county's assessed valu-
ation. The area of San Diego is now 8,551
square miles. She parted with the towns of
Temecula, Elsinore, Murietta, San Jacinto and
^^'inchester. The county division scheme was
opposed by San Diego and San Bernardino,
but was carried in spite of their protests.

In 1896 the San Diego Brewery, costing
$150,000, was erectetl entirely by San Diego
capital.

In 1898, a decade after the collapse of the
boom, the city had five miles of paved streets,
forty-three miles of graded streets and forty-five
miles of sewers: It had twenty-four churches
and fourteen schools.

January 21. 1899, the steamship, Belgian King,
the first of the California and Oriental Steam-
ship Company's vessels, arrived in port.

August 22, 1899, the steamer, Thyra, the
largest vessel that ever entered the port, draw-
ing twenty-seven feet of water, passed safely
over the bar and entered the harbor.

^lay I, 1899, the State Normal School on the
North Mesa was dedicated.

July 28, 1899, Andrew Carnegie donated San
Diego $50,000 for a free public library building.

The first public school opened in San Diego
was taught by Manuel dc \"argas, a retired ser-
geant of infantry. He was the pioneer school-
master of California, having taught a school at
San Jose in 1794. the first school opened in the
territory. He taught in San Diego from July.
1795, to December, 1798, at a yearly salary of
$250. Don Jose .\ntonio Carrillo is said to have
taught a school at the presidio in 1812-13. An-
tonio Afenendez was teaching in the old town
in 1828-29. Eighteen cliildren were j-eported
in attendance. In 1844 Crtivernor Micheltorena
issued a decree, establishing primary schools
at San Diego, Los Angeles. Santa Barbara and
several other towns. Tliis seems to have been

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the last school taught at San Diego under Mex-
ican rule.

After the American form of government was
estabHshed, a school was opened in Old Town
about 1853. The early school records have dis-
appeared, if, indeed, any were kept.

In 1867, fifteen years after a public-school
system had been established in California by
law, San Diego county was all included in one
school district and had but one teacher and one
school house within its limits. It was then
probably the largest school district in the United
States. In 1866 the number of white children
between five and fifteen years of age, according
to the school census of that year, was 335. The
census of 1867 gave an increase of only three,
which would seem to indicate a short crop that
year.

The number who attended public school in
1867 was thirty-two; those attending private
schools twenty-two — a total attendance of fifty-
four, or about si.xteen per cent of the children of
school age. This was but little, if any, improve-
ment on the school attendance of Mexican days.
In 1877 the census children had increased to
1,693; tbe number attending public schools 919,
and private scjiools 112. .The number of districts
had increased to thirty-four and the number of
teachers to thirty-five. In 1887 the total num-
ber of census children was 5,299; enrolled in the
piililic schools, 3,952. The number of districts
was eighty-two and the number of teachers, 115.

THE S.\N DIECO I'l^EE PUBLIC t-IBRARV.

'l"he public library was founded in 1882. The
first president of the library board was Bryant
Howard ; secretary, E. W. Hendrick ; treasurer,
G. H. Hitchcock ; trustees, G. W. MarstonandR,
M. Powers. The Commercial Bank donated the
free use of a room for six months. Donations
uf l)ooks were made by a number of persons and
a city tax levied for the support of the library.

In the early part of 1899 Mrs. Lydia M. Hor-
ton, who was at that time a member of the free
library board, wrote to the millionaire philan-
thropist, Andrew Carnegie, asking a donation to
erect a library building. On the 28th of July,
1899, she received a letter from Mr. Carnegie,
stating that "If the city were to pledge itself
to maintain a free public library from the taxes,
say to the extent of the amount you name of be-
tween $5,000 to $6,000 a year and provide a site,
[ shall be glad to give you $50,000 to erect a
suitable library building." The proposition was
accepted at once. .V site was secured on E street,
between Eighth and Ninth streets, at a cost
of $17,000; of which $8,000 was raised by sub-
scription and the balance paid by the city. The
site covers half a block. The building now in

course of erection will cost about $60,000. The
library contains about 18,000 volumes. Mary E.
\\'alker is the present librarian.

CH.\MBER OF COMMERCE.

The San Diego Chamber of Commerce was
organized January 20, 1870, and is the oldest
institution of that kind in Southern California.
The organizers were A. E. Horton, E. W.
Morse, David Felsenheld, Aaron Pauly, G. W.
B. McDonald, J. W. Gale, D. Choate and Jo-
seph Nash. Its first president was Aaron Pauly ;
and first secretary, David Felsenheld. It has
been for more than thirty years active in foster-
ing and promoting every public enterprise look-
ing to the welfare of San Diego city and county.

OTHER CITIES AND TOWNS.

Or.D TOWN.

Old Town, now the first ward of the city, is
the San Diego of history and romance. It is
three miles northwest of the city proper. The
surf line of the Santa Fe Railroad system passes
through the lower portion of it. From 1850 to
1868 it was the county seat. Prior to 1850 it
was all that there was of the city or town of San
Diego. Here the first germ of civilization in
California was planted. The first mission was
established here ; and here the first Indian con-
vert was baptized.

Dana and Robinson made it famous in their
books on life in the California of olden times ;
and Helen Hunt Jackson has invested it with an
air of romance by making it the scenes of the
marriage of her hero and heroine in her story of
Ramona. The house in which Ramona was
married to .Mcssandro is still pointed out to the
tourist.

The San Diego Sun of January 12, 1892, thus
rudely tears away the veil of sentiment that Mrs.
Jackson threw around her famous characters
and shows them up as they were in real life :
"The real Alessandro was a horse thief who
\\as shot for his crimes by a San Jacinto man,
wlio is still living. Ramona is a squaw of well-
understood character, who lives upon her noto-
riety and her ofifenses.''

NArr0N.\L CITY.

The Kimball Brothers in 1869 bought the
Rancho de la Nacion, containing 27,000 acres.
They subdivided a portion of it into farm lots,
built a wharf and laid oft a town on the bay
four miles south of San Diego, which they
named National City. They were quite success-
ful in selling lots, and for a time there was a
spirited and somewhat acrimonious rivalry be-
tween New Town and National Citv. The fail-

130

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ure of the Texas Pacific Railroad disastrously
affected it, as well as its rival. The California
Southern Railroad, in consideration of a gift of
17,000 acres of land made by the Kimballs, lo-
cated its Pacific terminus at National City.
Again the town was on the high tide of pros-
perity. The removal of the railroad shops be-
gun in 1892. The dry seasons of 1898-99 and
1900 have had a depressing effect upon it, but its
inhabitants have not lost faith in its future.

CORON.VDO.

Coronado Beach, or Coronado as it is usually
called, is a peninsula that divides San Diego
Harbor from the ocean. Up to 1886 it was
covered with a dense growth of chaparral. E. S.
Babcock originated the scheme of building a
town and an immense tourist hotel on it. The
Coronado Beach Company was organized and
work begun. The bru.sh was clearetl off, streets
graded, sewers laid and town lots thrown on the
market in time to be caught by the boom. The
lots advanced rapidly in value and Babcock's
scheme proved to have "millions in it." The erec-
tion of the Hotel del Coronado was begun early
in 1887, and completed in December of that
year. The building covers seven acres of ground
and can accommodate seven hundred guests.
It is one of the largest caravansaries in the
world. The dreary and desolate looking pen-
insula of fifteen years ago is now covered with
elegant residences, green lawns and flower gar-
dens. It is reached from San Diego by a steam
ferry that connects with an electric railroad that
runs to the ocean front of the hotel, a mile
distant from the ferry.

0CE.\NSIDE.

Oceanside on the surf line of the Santa Fe
Railroad system is forty-one miles by rail north
of San Diego. It was founded in 1884 and
during the boom grew japidly. The Fallbrook
branch railroad, once the main line of the Cali-
fornia Southern, leaves the Surf Line at Ocean-
siile. The railroad to Escondido forms a junc-
tion here with the Surf Line between San Diego
and Los .\ngeles.

The town is four miles from the Old Mission
of San Luis Rey and has the rich San Luis Rey
valley for its back country. It has several gen-
eral merchandise stores which have a good local
trade.

liSco.Numo.

Escondido, Hidden \'alley or Rincon ilel Di-
ablo, The Devil's Corner, was formerlv known

as \\'olfskiirs rancho and comprises about 13,-
000 acres of the San Marcos grant. In 1885
it was purchased by a syndicate of San Diego
and Los Angeles capitalists, who subdivided it
into small farms and laid off a town. The lands
had a rapid sale. A large hotel, a bank building
and a number of business blocks w^ere built be-
tween 1886 and 1890. The farm lands have
been planted to citrus fruits and raisin grapes.

F.\LLBRO0K.

Fallbrook, on the western slope of the Coast
Range mountains, is twelve miles in a direct
line from the coast and sixty-one from San
Diego by the railroad. Since the great Hoot!
of 1892, which destroyed the railroad in the
Temecula Canon, Fallbrook has been the ter-
minus of the eastern end of the road which is
now known as the Fallbrook branch. The older
settlement is back a mile or two from the rail-
road. The town has grown up since the build-
ing of the railroad. It has two large hotels
and several business houses.

P-\L.\ (Shovel), once an asisteiicia or auxiliary
of San Luis Rey Mission, is located in the
upper San Luis Rey valley about seventeen
miles from the coast and fifty miles north of
San Diego. It is largely an Indian settlement.
These descendants of the Mission Indians keep
up many of the old customs and observances.
The Mission Capilla or Chapel still stands in a
fair state of preservation. Services are held in
it once a month. There is here some of the
finest vine and fruit land in the county.

JuLi.\N, fifty-five miles northeast from San
Diego bay, in the mountain regions, is 4,500
feet above the sea level. It owes its origin to
a mining rush. In February, 1870, gold was
discovered near the ranch of M. S. Julian. The
news of the discovery caused a rush and a town
was built and named after the proprietor. .\
number of rich claims were located and for
several years a considerable quantity of gold
was taken out. The Cuyamaca grant owners
laid claim to the mines. After a legal contest,
lasting five years, the miners won. Much of the
country around Julian is adapted to stock rais-
ing. There are some fine orchards of apples,
])ears, plums and peaches in the Julian district.

B.\NNKU is a mining" .settlement four miles
cast of Julian, but 1,500 feet lower. It is on the
desert side of the divide in the San Felijie
Canon, the waters of which sink into the desert.
The town has several quartz mills, a store, post
'office and school house.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XXIV.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY.

EXTENT OF THE ORIGINAL COUNTV.

THE original county of Los Angeles was
an empire in itself. It extended from
the Pacific ocean on the west to the
Colorado river on the east, and from San
Diego county on the south to Mariposa on
the north. Its area was about 32,000 square
miles, or a little more than one-fifth of the
area of the entire state. Excepting Maine,
it was equal in size to the total area of the
other five New England states.

The boundaries, as given in the act of
February 18, 1850, dividing the state into
counties, were very indefinite, but as a vast ex-
tent of Los Angeles county was a terra in-
cognito, inhabited by wandering savages, no
conflict arose in regard to jurisdiction, except
with these Indians and that was settled by bul-
lets and not by boundary lines.

An act of the second legislature re])caled
the former act, and more clearly defined the
boundaries of the county. It is as follows :

"Section 3. — County of Los Angeles. — Be-
ginning on the coast of the Pacific, at a point
parallel with the northern boundary of the
rancho called Malaga ; thence in a direction
so as to include said rancho, to the northwest
corner of the rancho, known as Triunifo, run-
ning on the northerly line of the same to the
northea.st corner ; thence to the summit of the
ridge of hills called Santa Susanna ; thence in
a direct line to the rancho Casteyne (Castaic)
and Lejon (El Tejon), and along their northern
line to the northeastern corners, and thence in
a northeast line to the eastern boundary of the
state, and along said boundary line to the junc-
tion of the northern boundary of San Diego
county with the Colorado ; thence in a north-
westerly direction parallel with the coast to a
point tliree miles from land, and opposite to the
southern boundary of the rancho called Mal-
aga, and thence east to the place of beginning;
including the island of Santa Catalina and San
Clement. The seat of justice shall be at Los
Angeles."

In 1851, a colony of Mormons from Salt Lake
located where now the city of San Bernardino
stands, on a tract of land bought from the Lugos.

They were reinforced by other immigrants from
Salt Lake and by some non-Mormon families.
The settlement grew quite rapidly. These
settlers petitioned the legislature of 1853 to
create a new county out of the eastern portion
of Los Angeles county. By an act entitled,
"An Act for dividing the county of Los An-
geles and making a new county therefrom to
be called San Bernardino county," approved
April 26, 1853, it was provided:

"Section 3. — The county of Los Angeles is
hereby divided as follows : Beginning at a
point where a due south line drawn from the
highest peak of the Sierra de Santiago inter-
sects the northern boundary of San Diego
county ; thence running along the summit of
said Sierra to the Santa Ana river, between the
ranch of Sierra and the residence of Bernardo
Yorba ; thence across the Santa Ana river along
the summit of the range of hills that lie bc"
tween the Coyotes and Chino (leaving the
ranchos of Ontiveras and Ybarra to the west of
this line), to the southeast corner of the ranch
of San Jose; thence along the eastern boun-
daries of said ranch and of San Antonio, and
the western and northern boundaries of Cucai-
monga ranch to the ravine of Cucaimonga ;
thence up said ravine to its source in the Coast
Range ; thence due north to the northern boun-
dary of Los Angeles county; thence north-
east to the State Line; thence along the State
Line to the northern boundary line of San Diego
county, thence westerly along the northern boun-
dary of San Diego to the place of beginning.

"Section 4. — The eastern jiortion of Los An-
geles county so cut off, shall be called San
Bernardino county and the seat of justice thereof
shall be at such a place as a majority of voters
shall determine at the first county election, here-
inafter provided to be held in said county and
shall remain at the place .so designated until
changed by the people, as provided by law."

The formation of the new county cut ofT about
24,000 square miles from Los Angeles, but still
leaving her 8,000 square miles. She held on to
this territory for thirteen years, then she had to
give up another slice of her territory, but as this
was mostly mountains and deserts there was
no opposition to the segregation.

132

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

In 1866 the county of Kern was formed out
of portions of Tulare and Los Angeles counties.
The area of Los Angeles after the creation of
Kern county was about 5,000 square miles.

In 1869 began the struggle to cut ofif a por-
tion from the southeastern part to form a new
county. This movement the people of Los An-
geles resisted. The contest over county division
lasted for twenty years. It ended in 1889 with
the formation of Orange county. The story of
this long drawn out contest is told m full in the
history of Orange county.

After the formation of Orange county Los
Angeles had an area of 3,880 square miles. In
1891 an efifort was made to cut a slice ofif the
eastern side to form with territory taken from
San Bernardino the county of Pomona. For-
tunately the scheme failed.

ORG.\NIZ.\TI0N OF THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT.

The transition from the Mexican form of gov-
ernment in California to that of the United
States was very gradual. Los Angeles the last
Mexican stronghold surrendered January 10,
1847. It was not until June 24, 1850, that the
American municipal form of government by
county officers superseded the ayuntamientos,
alcaldes, prefects and sindicos of Spain and
Mexico. The legislature had passed a county
government act, February 18, 1850, and had pro-
vided for an election of county officers to be
held the first Monday of April. The election
was held, April i, 377 votes were cast in the
county and the following named officers elected :
county judge, Augustin Olvera ; county attor-
ney, Benjamin Hays ; county clerk, B. D. Wil-
son ; sheriff, G. Thompson Burrill ; treasurer,
Manuel Garfias ; assessor, Antonio F. Coronel ;
recorder, Ignacio del \'alle ; surveyor, J. R.
Conway; coroner, Charles B. Cullcn.

COURT OF SESSIONS.

The court of sessions which consisted of the
county judge and two justices of the peace con-
stituted the legislative body of the county gov-
ernments of the state up to 1853, when the civil
business of the counties was turned over to
a board of supervisors, created by an act of the
legislature. The court of sessions had jurisdic-
tion over the criminal business, the impaneling
of juries and filling vacancies in oflfice up to
1865, when it was legislated out of office.

The court of sessions was the motive ]io\\er
that set the county machinery in operation. The
first meeting of tlie court in Los ,\ngeles was
held June 24, 1850. Hon. Augustin Olvera was
the presiding judge; the associate justices were
Jonathan R. Scott and Luis Roubidoau. .An-
tonio F. Coronel, as'^cssor-elect. and Charles R.

Cullen, coroner-elect, were cited before tru.
court to qualify and file their official bonds.
Coronel appeared ne.xt day and qualified, but
Cullen declined to serve.

At the meeting of the court, June 26, jailer
Samuel Whiting was allowed $7 per day salary,
out of which he was to employ a competent
assistant. He was allowed "for feeding the pris-
oners, fifty cents each ; that each prisoner shall
have per day an amount of bread to the value of
twelve and one-half cents or an equivalent in
rice or beans ; balance of the allowance in good
meat."

A. P. Hodges, M. D., was appointed coroner
(during his term as coroner he also served as
the first mayor of the city). The county judge
could not speak English and at least one asso-
ciate judge spoke no Spanish, so G. Thompson
Burrill was appointed county interpreter for the
court at a salary of $50 per month. He was also
sherifif.

At the session of July 11, 1850, it was or-
dered that the town council be permitted to
work the county prisoners by paying the daily
expense of each one's keeping — fifty cents. A
master stroke of economy. Some one has sneer-
ingly said that the first public buildings the
Americans built in California after it came into
their possession, were jails. This was true of
Los Angeles and in fact of all the counties of
southern California.

July II, 1850, commissioners were appointeil
by the city and county to select a site for a jail.
Lots Nos. I, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9 in square No. 34
(north of the Plaza church) were selected for a
jail site. The city council was asked to donate
said lots to the county and the city was re-
quested to loan the county $2,000, to be used
in building said jail, the city council to have
permission to use said jail until the loan is re-
funded. The city fathers did not take kindly
to these requests of the judges ; so the county
had to worry along two years longer before a
jail was built and then it was not built on the
site selected by the joint commission.

JUDGES OF THE PL.MXS.

There was one Hispano-American institution
that long survived the fall of Mexican domina-
tion in California; and that was the office of
Jueces del Campo, Judges of the Plains. A judge
of the plains was a very im])ortant functionary.
Tt was his duty to be present at the annual
Rodeos (round ups of cattle), and Rccojcdas
(gathering up of horses). His seat of justice was
in the saddle, his court room the mesa, and from
his decision there was no appeal. All dis])utes
nl)nut ownership of stock came before him. The
ciidc iif ills court was unwritten, or nio^tlv so,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

133

which was fortunate for many of the judges
could not read. This hap-hazard way of ad-
ministering justice did not suit American ideas,
so, at a meeting of the court of sessions, July
23, 1850, the county attorney was ordered "to
collect the various Bandos and Reglamentos
heretofore made in this district respecting the
Jueces del Canipo and give his opinion upon the
same at the next term of this court." At the
session of the court, August 22, the county at-
torney reported a number of regulations, some
written, others established by custom. The court
added several new regulations to those already
existing, the most important of which (to the
Jueces) was a salary of one hundred dollars a
year to each judge, payable out of the county
treasury. Under Mexican rule the plains judge
took his pay in honor. As there were a round
dozen of these officials in the county in 1850,
their aggregate pay e.xcceded the entire expense
of the municipal government of the district dur-
ing the last year of the Mexican rule. After
jails the next innovation the Americans intro-
duced was taxes.

Even at this early day, before California had
become a state, there were "Patriotas de Bolsa"
(patriots of the pocket), men who knew how to
make a good thing of their patriotic services.
In the summer of 1850, an expedition under
Gen. Joseph C. Morehead had been sent against
the mountain Indians, who had been stealing
horses from the Los Angeles rancheros. In a
skirmish with the Indian horse thieves, a militia-
man named William Carr was wounded. Gen.
Morehead sent him back to Los Angeles to
have him taken care of. At the session of the
court, September i8th, the medico wdio doctored
the wounded soldier presented a bill of $503 ;
the patriotic American who boarded him de-
manded $120, and the man who lodged him
charged $45 for house rent. The native Cali-
fornian who waited on him was satisfied with
$30, but then he was not a patriot ! The bills were
approved, but as the county treasury was as
empty as the ranchero's corrals after an Indian
raid, the accounts were referred to the incom-
ing legislature for settlement. It is gratifying
to know that this valuable soldier "lived to fight
another day," but it is to be hoped that for mo-
tives of economy he kept out of reach of In-
dian arrows.

FEES AND SALARIES.

The first fee and salary bill of California was
based upon prices ruling in the mining counties
where a sherifif's fees amounted to more than
the salary of the president of the United States.
The liberal fees allowed for official services
soon bankrupted the treasuries of the cow coun-

ties, and in 1851 they were petitioning the leg-
islature for a reduction of fees. It cost $100 to
hold an inquest on a dead Indian and as vio-
lent deaths were of almost daily or nightly oc-
currence, the coroner's office was quite lucrative.
Some of the verdicts of the coroner's juries
showed remarkable familiarity with the decrees
of the Almighty. On a native Californian
named Gamico, found dead in the street, the
verdict was "Death by the visitation of God."
Of a dead Indian, found near the zanja, the Los
Angeles Star says: "Justice Dryden and a jury
sat on the body. The verdict was 'Death from
intoxication or by the visitation of God.' Bacilio
was a Christian Indian and was confessed by
the reverend padre yesterday afternoon." The
jurors were paid $10 each for sitting on a body.
Coroner Hodges made the champion record on
inquests. October 20, 1851, he held eleven in-
quests in one day. These were held on Irving's
band of horse thieves and robbers who were
killed by the Cahuilla Indians in the San Ber-
nardino mountains.

The criminal element had been steadily in-
creasing in Los Angeles. In 185 1, a military
company was organized to aid the sherifif in
keeping order. November 24, 1851, the court
of session ordered that the sheriff cause fifty
good lances to be made for the use of the vol-
unteer company. The pioneer blacksmith, John
Goller, made the lances and was paid $87.50
for the job. Goller also made a branding iron
for the county. The county brand consisted of
the letters "LA" three inches long. In January,

1852, the house occupied by Benjamin Hays,
under lease from Felipe Garcia, was sublet by
him to the county for a court house for the
balance of his term, expiring November 16,

1853. The sum of $650 was appropriated by
order of the court of sessions to pay the rent
for the agreed term. The first building used for
a court house was the old government house
that Pio Pico bought from Isaac \\'illiams for
the capitol. Pico had resided in it during his
term as governor. After the conquest two com-
panies of United States Dragoons were quar-
tered in it. A contract was let, July 8, 1851, to
build a jail and John G. Nichols appointed at $6
a day to superintend the job, but some mis-
understanding with the city arising, the build-
ing was not erected, and September 13, 1851, the
court ordered the sheriff to sell the adobes now
on hand for use of jail at the highest market
price and turn the money over to the clerk of tlie
court.

The first county jail was the adobe building
on the hill back of the Downey (then Temple)
block used by the troops for a guard house.
There were no cells in it. Staples were driven

13i

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

into a heavy pine log that reached across the
building and short chains attached to the sta-
ples were fastened to the handcuffs of the pris-
oners. Solitary confinement was cflit of the
question then. Indian culprits were chained to
logs outside of the jail so that they could more
fully enjoy the glorious climate of California.
In 1853, the city and county built a jail on the
present site of the Phillips block, northwest
corner of Spring and Franklin streets. It was
the first public building erected in the county.

The legislature of 1852 created the office of
county supervisor. The first election for super-
visors of the county was held June 14, 1852,
and the following named persons elected : Jef-
ferson Hunt, Julian Chavis, Francisco P. Tem-
ple, Manuel Requena and Samuel Arbuckle.
The board held its first meeting on the first
Monday of July, 1852. Arbuckle was elected
chairman. The supervisors transacted the civil
business of the county.

The machinery of the county's government
was now in full working order. We will turn
our attention to other phases of its development.

THE FIRST DECADE OF COUNTY'S
HISTORY, 18S0-1860.

In what comprised the original county of Los
Angeles there were during the Spanish and
Mexican regimes sixty grants of land made.
These varied in size from a grant of 44.36 acres
to the Mission of San Juan Capistrano to the
Rancho Ex-Mission of San Fernando, granted
to Eulogio de Cells, containing 121,619.24 acres.

At the time of the conquest about all the land
fit for pasturage had been sequestered from the
public domain in the form of grants. The oldest
grants made within what is now the county of
Los Angeles are the Nietos and the San Rafael.
According to Col. J. J. Warner's historical
sketch, "The Nietos tract, embracing all the
land between the Santa Ana and San Gabriel
and from the sea to and including some of the
hill land on its northeastern frontier, was granted
by Governor Pedro Pages to Manuel Nielo in
1784."

"The San Rafael tract, lying on the left bank
of the Los Angeles river and extending to the
Arroyo Seco, was granted by Governor Pedro
Pages, October 20, 1784, and the grant was re-
affirmed by Governor Borica, January 12, 1798,
to Jose Maria Verdugo." If, as Col. Warner
claims, the "Nietos tract" embraced all the land
between the Santa Ana and the San Gabriel
rivers, from the sea to the hills, Nietos' heirs did
nut hold it. Subscnuenllv there were a number

of grants made in that territory. The Mission
San Gabriel, previous to 1830, had possession
of several subdivisions of this tract such as Las
Bolsas, Alamitos, Los Coyotes, Puente and
others. After the secularization of the missions
all the lands held by the padres, except small
tracts in the innnediate neighborhood of the
mission buildings, were granted to private
owners.

Shortly after the admission of California to
the Union the long-drawn-out legal contests
over the confirmation of the Spanish and Mex-
ican grants began. These contests, in some
cases, were waged for years before the United
States Claims Commission, the various courts
and the land commissioner at Washington, be-
fore they were settled. Litigation often ruined
both the contesting parties, and when the case
was finally decided the litigants, like in "Jarn-
dyce vs. Jarndyce," had nothing left but bundles
of legal documents. Even when a claimant did
win and the decisions of courts and conmiis-
sions gave him undisputed possession of his
broad acres, it often happened that a cancerous
mortgage, the result of litigation, was eating
away his patrimony. The land grants in Los An-
geles have all been confirmed and it is to be
hoped that they will remain so. No greater
blight can fall on a community than an attack
upon the validity of its title to its lands.

In early times the county officials followe<l
the Mexican plan of designating districts and
legal subdivision by ranchos. August 7, 1851.
the court of sessions "ordered that the county
of Los Angeles be divided into six townships
named as follows; and to comprehend the
ranchos and places as follows to each appropri-
ated." The first of these was the township of
Los Angeles. There are few now living who
could trace from the description given in the
records the boundaries of Los Angeles township
fifty years ago. Here is the description :

TowNsiiir OF Los Angelas. — "The city of
Los Angeles and the following ranchos,
to-wit: Los Corralitos, Feliz, Verdugos, Ca-
hucnga, Tujunga, San Fernando, ex-Mission.
San Francisco, Piro, Camulos, Canada de los
.\lamos. La Liebre, El Tejon, Triumfo, Las
X'ergenes, Escorpion, Los Cuervos, San Anto-
nio de la Mesa, Los Alamitos, Vicente Lugo,
Arroyo, Seco, Encino, Maligo, Santa Monico,
San Vicentes, Buenos Ayres, I^ Bayona, Rincon
de los Buey, Rodeo de Las Aguas, I^ Cicnega,
La Centinela, Sausal Redondo, Palos Venles,
San Pedro, Los Dominguez, Rancho Nuevo.
Paredon Blanco, Los Serrit<is, La Jaboneria,
Rosa de Castilla."

"The residence of the authorities shall be in
Lds Angeles citv."

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

135

IMMIGRANTS AND ONEKLANU ROUTES.

Cattle raising continued to be the dominant
industry. To make it successful under the con-
ditions then existing it was necessary to hold
the land in large tracts. The demand for beef
caused by the rush of immigration to the state
raised the price of cattle until a well-stocked
rancho was more profitable than a gold mine.
The overland travel by the various southern
routes, all of which converged in Los Angeles,
gave a home market for a considerable amount
of the home products.

The Sonorese migration began in 1848 as
soon as the news of the discovery of gold in
California reached Mexico. While these gold-
seekers were called Sonorese or Sonorians, they
came from the different states of Northern Mex-
ico, but in greater numbers from Sonora. The
trail from Mexico by way of Aristo, Tucson,
the Pima villages, across the desert and through
the San Gorgonio Pass had been traveled for
three-quarters of a century. Another branch
of this trail crossed the desert from Yuma to
Warner's ranch ; and then by way of Temecula,
Jurupa and the Chino, reached Los Angeles.
Along these trails from 1848 to 1852 came the
Sonorese migration. These pilgrims to the
shrine of Manuuon were a hard lot. They were
poor and ignorant and not noted for good mor-
als. From Los Angeles northward, they invaria-
bly traveled by the coast route, and in squads
of from 50 to 100. Some of them brought their
women and children with them. With their few
possessions packed on donkeys and mules they
tramped their weary way from Mexico to the
mines. They were not welcomed to the land
of gold. The Americans disliked them and the
native Californians treated them with contempt.
The men wore cotton shirts, white pantaloons,
sandals and sombreros. Their apparel, like the
laws of the Medes and Persians, "changed not,"
nor did they change it as long as a shred of it
held together. The native Californians nick-
named them "calzonares blancos" (white
breeches), and imposed upon them when an
opportunity offered. The story is told of a
native Californian alcalde or justice of the peace
who had his office near the old mission church
of San Luis Obispo. When a band of these
Sonorian pilgrims came along the highway
which led past the old mission, they invariably
stopped at the churcli to make the sign of the
cross and to implore the protection of the saints.
Tills gave the alcalde his opportunity. Station-
ing his ali^mn-ilcs or constables on tlie road to
bar their progress, he proceeded to collect fifty
cents toll of each pilgrim. If word was jiassed
back to the squads behind and they attempted

to avoid the toll-gatherer by a detour to the
right or left, the alcalde sent out his mounted
constables and rounded up the poor Sonorians
like so many cattle at a rodeo, then he and his
alguacilcs committed highway robbery on a
small scale. Retributive justice overtook this
unjust judge. The vigilantes hanged' him, not,
however, for tithing the Sonorese, but for horse
stealing.

The Sonorian migration began to decline after
1850, and entirely ceased a year or two later.
The foreign miner's tax and their persecution
by the Americans convinced the Sonorians that
there was no place like home. So they went
home and stayed there.

A route by which a number of immigrants
from Texas and some of the other Gulf states
came in 1849 led through the northern states
of Mexico until it intercepted the Sonora trail
and then by that to Los Angeles.

The old Santa Fe trail to Islew Mexico; then
across Arizona, following the Gila to the Colo-
rado river, was another southern route by which
a great deal of overland travel reached Southern
California. In 1854, from actual count, it was
ascertained that 9,075 persons came by that
route. About one-fourth of the 61,000 overland
inuuigrants who came to the slate that year
reached it by the southern routes. But the route
by which the majority of the argonauts of '49
and the early '50s reached Southern California
led south from Salt Lake City until it inter-
cepted the great Spanish trail from Los Angeles
to Santa Fe at the southern end of Utah Lake.
Inuuigrants by this route, crossing the Colorado
desert, reached the San Bernardino valley
through the Cajon Pass. Capt. Jedediah S.
Smith, in 1826, was the first white man to reach
Los Angeles by this trail. There was consid-
erable trade and travel between Santa Fe and
Los Angeles over the old Spanish trail before
the conquest of California. The early innnigra-
tion from New Mexico came by this route. By
it came J. J. Warner, William \\'olfskill, the
Rowland-Workman party, numbering forty-four
persons ; B. D. Wilson, D. W. Alexander, John
Reed, Dr. John Marsh and many other pioneers.

For several years before the conquest, on ac-
count of the hostility of the Indians, this trail
had been little used, and to the great army of
the Argonauts who crossed the plains in 1841)
it was unknown. The belated immigrants of
that year who reached Salt Lake too late to
cross the Sierra Nevadas had the alternative pre-
sented them of wintering with the Saints or of
finding a southern route into California and
thus evading the fate that befell the Donner
])arty in the snows of the Sierras. These de-
layed Argonauts found a Mormon captain, Jef-

136

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ferson Hunt, late cai^tain of Company A of the
Mormon Battalion, who had recently arrived in
Salt Lake by this southern route. He was en-
gaged as a guide. A train of about 500 wagons
started in November, 1849, for Southern Cali-
fornia. After several weeks' travel, a number
of the immigrants having become dissatisfied
with Hunt's leadership, and hearing that there
was a shorter route to the settlements than the
train was pursuing, seceded from the main body
and struck out westward across the desert. After
traveling for several days together, they dis-
agreed. Some returned to the main body; the
others broke up into small parties and took dif-
ferent directions. One of these parties, num-
bering eleven persons, penetrated Death valley
and all perished. Another, after incredible hard-
ships and having lost several of their number on
the desert, reached Los Angeles by the Soledad
Pass. Another company, after weeks of wan-
dering and suffering, reached the Tulare valley,
where they were relieved by the Indians. The
main body, with but little inconvenience, ar-
rived in San Bernardino valley the last of Jan-
uary, 1850.

After the establishment of the Mormon colony
at San Bernardino, in June, 1851, the Salt Lake
route became a well-traveled road, over which,
up to the completion of the Union Pacific Rail-
road in 1869, a large amount of freight and travel
passed between the City of the Saints and the
City of the Angels. By this route came a num-
ber of the pioneer American families of Los An-
geles. Among others may be named the Macys,
Andersons, \\ orkmans, Ulyards, Hazards, Mon-
tagues.

COMMERCIAL CONVEYANCES.

San Pedro was, in 1850, as it had been for
more than half a century before, the entrepot
through which the commerce of the Los An-
geles district passed. It was, next to San I^an-
cisco, the principal seaport of the coast. In
the early '50s all the trade and travel up and
down the coast came and went by sea. No stage
lines had been established in the lower coast
counties. In 1848, and for several years after,
the only means of getting to the city from the
])ort and vice versa was on horseback. A cabal-
iada (band) of horses were kept in pasture on
the Palos Verdes. When a ship w-as sighted in
the offing, the vaqueros rounded up the nnis-
tangs, lassoed them and had them saddled,
ready for the jiassengers when they came ashore.
As the horses were half-broken broncos, and
the passengers mostly newcomers from the
states, unused to the tricks of bucking mus-
tangs, the tri]) usually ended in the passenger
arriving in the city on foot, the bronco having

landed his rider at some point most convenient
to him (the bronco,) not the passenger.

In 1849 Temple and Alexander had a general
merchandise store at San Pedro, and did about
all the forwarding business of the port. Goods
were freighted to Los Angeles in carts drawn
by two yoke of oxen yoked by the horns. The
carts were similar to the Alexican carretas, ex-
cept that they had spoked and tired wheels in-
stead of solid ones. A regular freight train was
composed of ten carts and forty oxen. Freight
charges were $20 a ton. In 1852, stages were
put on the route by Banning & Alexander.
Tomlinson put on an opposition line, and in
1853 ^- ''^- Townsend was running an acconmio-
dation line between the city and the port and
advertising in the Star, "Good coaches and teams
as the county will afford." The stage fare was
at first $10, then $7.50, dropped to $5, and
as opposition increased went down to $1, and
as the rivalry grew keener passengers were car-
ried free.

The first steamer that ever entered the bay of
San Pedro was the "Gold Hunter," which an-
chored in the port in 1849. She was a side-
wheel vessel which made the voyage from San
Francisco to Mazatlan, touching at way ports.

The "Gold Hunter" was followed by the
steamers "Ohio," "Southerner," "Sea Bird" and
"Goliath" in 1850 and 1851. In 1853 the "Sea
Bird" was making three trips a month between
San Francisco and San Diego, touching at Mon-
terey, Santa Barbara and San Pedro. The price
of a first-cabin passage from San Pedro to San
Francisco in the early '50s was $55. The bill
of fare consisted of salt beef, hard bread, pota-
toes and coffee without milk or sugar. Freight
charges were $25 a ton. It cost $10 to transport
a barrel of flour from San Francisco to Los
Angeles. The trip occupied four days. The
way ports w-ere Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo
and Monterey. There were no w'harves or ligiit-
crs on the route ; passengers and freight were
landed in the steamer's boats. If the sea was
very rough, the passengers were carried to San
Francisco and brought back on the return trip.
Sometimes when the tide was low they had to
l)e carried from the boat to the shore on the
sailors' backs. The sailor, like the bronco, some-
times bucked, and the passenger waded ashore.
Both man and beast were somewhat uncertain
"in the days of gold — the days of '49."

The imports by sea greatly exceeded the ex-
]iorts. Cattle and horses, the i)rinc!]ial |)roiiiK-ts
of the county, transported themselves to market.
The vineyards along the river ])rincipally within
the city limits were immensely profitable in the
early '50s. There was hut little fiesh fruit in
the coiuitry. Grapes, in San Francisco, retailed

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

137

all the way from twenty-five to fifty cents a
pound. The vineyards were cultivated by In-
dian labor. About all that it cost the vineyardist
for 'labor was the amount of aguardiente that it
took to give the Indian his regular Saturday
night drunk. So the grape crop was about all
profit.

FIRST ST.\TE CENSUS.

The first state census of California was taken
in 1852. According to this census the county
had a total population of 7,831, divided as fol-
lows:

Whites-
Males 2,496

Females i ,597

Total 4,093

Domesticated Indians —

Males 2,278

Females i ,41 5

The cattle numbered 113,475; horses, 12,173;
wheat produced 34,230 bushels; barley, 12,120
bushels; corn, 6,934 bushels. Number of acres
under cultivation, 5,587 ; grape vines, 450,000,
of which 400,000 were within the city. This was
before any portion of tlie county had been segre-
gated. Its limits extended from San Juan Capis-
trano on the south to the Tulares on the north,
and from the sea to the Colorado river ; of its
32,000 square miles, less than nine square miles
were cultivated, and yet it had been settled for
three-quarters of a century.

During the '50s the county grew slowly. Land
was held in large tracts and cattle raising con-
tinued to be the principal industry. At the El
Monte several families from the southwestern
states had formed a small settlement and were
raising grain, principally corn. The Mormons,
at San Bernardino, were raising corn, wheat,
barley and vegetables, and selling them at a good
price. One season they received as high as $5
a bushel for their wheat.

CHAPTER XXV.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY— Continued.

A GOLD RUSH AND GOLD PLACERS.

THE famous Kern river gold rush of 1855
brought an influx of population. Some
of that population was very undesirable.
The gold rush made business lively for a time,
but when the reaction came it left a number of
wrecks financially stranded. This mining ex-
citement had one good effect : it called the at-
tention of the Angeleiios to the mineral resources
of their own county and indirectly brought
about their development.

Francisco Lopez discovered gold in the San
Feliciano canon of the San Fernando moun-
tains, March 9, 1841. Gold was discovered in
several other canons of this district and these
placers were worked in a desultory sort of a
way up to 1848. When the news of Marshall's
discovery at Coloma reached Los Angeles, all
the experienced miners left for the northern
mines, and the gold placers of Los Angeles were
abandoned. The Kern river gold rush brought
a number of experienced miners to the county,
and the San Fernando mines were again opened
and a considerable amount of gold dust taken
from them. It is reported that Francisco Gar-
cia, working the mines with a .gang of Indians,
took out $65,000 in 1855. Gold was discovered
on the headwaters of the San Gabriel river in
1855. In 1856 the Santa Anita placers, fifteen

miles from Los Angeles city, were discovered
and mined; the miners making from $5 to $10
a day. In 1858 the Santa Anita Mining Com-
pany was organized with a capital of $50,000,
hydraulic works constructed, and the gulches
mined. The mines paid well. During 1858 and
1859 the cation of the San Gabriel was pros-
pected for forty miles, and some rich placers
located. Two hydraulic companies took out
$1,000 a week each. Two Mexicans with a com-
mon wooden howl or batca panned out $90 in
two days. In July, 1859, 300 men were at work
in the canon, and all reported doing well. The
next year, i860, was a prosperous season for the
miners. Altogether since their discovery, over
sixty years ago, it is estimated that the gold
placers of Los Angeles have yielded not less than
$5,000,000.

Notwithstanding the county was producing
gold, grain and cattle, in the later '50s times were
hard, money scarce and rates of interest exorbi-
tant. "Eight, ten and even fifteen per cent a
month," says the Soiitlicrn Ci\lifornian. "is freely
paid for money, and the supply even at these
rates is too meager to meet the demand." This
state of affairs was caused largely by the reaction
from the flush times of the early '50s. The na-
tive Californians, the principal land-holders,
were bad financiers. When times were good
and money plentiful, they spent lavishly. When

138

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

dry years came or the price of cattle fell from
over-production, they did not retrench expenses,
but mortgaged their lands to procure spending
money. \\'ith such usurious rates of interest pre-
vailing, it was only a question of the leniency
of their creditors when they would be compelled
to part witii their ancestral acres.

THE SECOND DECADE, 1860-1870.

The years 1859, i860, 1861-62 were seasons of
abundant rainfall. Indeed, the fluvial downpour
of 1861-62 was altogether too abundant. Never
before, within the memory of the oldest inhab-
itant, had there been such floods. The season's
rainfall footed up nearly fifty inches. The val-
ley of the Sacramento became a vast inland sea
and the city of Sacramento was inundated and
almost ruined. Relief boats on their errands of
mercy, leaving the. channels of the rivers, sailed
over submerged ranchos, past floating houses
and wrecks of barns, through vast flotsams made
up of farm products, farming implements and the
carcasses of horses, cattle and sheep, all drift-
ing out to sea. The losses in the Sacramento
and San Joaquin valleys footed up into the mil-
lions. In Los Angeles county, on account of
the smaller area of the valleys and the shortness
of the rivers, there was but little loss of property.
The rivers spread over the lowlands, but the
stock found safety from the flood on the hills.
The Santa Ana river for a time rivaled the
Father of Waters in magnitude. In the town of
Anaheim, four miles from the river, the water
ran four feet deep and spread in an unbroken
sheet to the Coyote hills, three miles beyond.
The Arroyo Seco, swollen to a mighty river,
brought down from the mountains and caiions
great rafts of driftwood, which were scattered
over the plains Ijelow the city, and furnished fuel
to the poor people for several years. It l)eoan
raining DccendxT 24, 1861, and continued fur
thirty days with Init two slight interruptions.

FAMINE YE.'^RS.

As a result of three successive years of abun-
dant rainfall and consequent luxuriant pastur-
age, the ranchcros allowed their stock ranges
to become overstocked. • \\'hen the famine years
of 1863 and 1864 came, the dry feed on the
ranges was soon exhausted, and cattle were
slowly dying of s'tarvation. Herds of gaunt,
skeleton-like forms moved slowly over the plains
in search of food. Here and there, singly or in
small groups, poor brutes, too weak to move on,
stood motionless with drooping heads, dying.
It was a pitiful sight. The loss of cattle during
the famine years was fearful. The plains were

strewn with their carcasses. In marshy places
and around the cienegas where there was a ves-
tige of green the ground was covered with their
skeletons ; and the traveler for years afterwards
was often startled by coming suddenly upon
a veritable Golgotha — a place of skulls — the long
horns standing out in a defiant attitude, as if
defending the fleshless bones. It was estimated
that 50,000 head of cattle died on the Stearns'
ranchos alone. In i860 the county assessment
was $3,064,701; in 1864, $1,622,370.

Don Abel Stearns, one of the greatest of the
cattle barons of Southern California, was re-
duced almost to the verge of bankruptcy. In
1864 all of his landed possessions, consisting of
seven ranchos, aggregating over one hundred
thousand acres, and all of his city lots and lands
were advertised for sale on account of the de-
linquent taxes of 1863, the total amount of which
was a little over $2,000. The lot on the south-
cast corner of Spring and Second streets, now
worth a quarter of a million, was sold in 1863
for $37. Two thousand acres in East Los An-
geles were sold in 1864 by the city council for
fifty cents per acre. The purchaser took it under
protest because the council would not sell him
less. Never before had the people of the county
been in such financial straits. To add to the
miseries of hard times, the people were divided
into two hostile factions — Union and Secession.
The Civil war was in progress. The Confeder-
ate sympathizers were largely in the majority
in the county. While there were no active hos-
tilities between the factions, there was a great
deal of ill feeling. The Confederate sympa-
thizers were loud in their denunciations of the
government and the flag under which they were
living and had lived all their lives. However,
beyond a few arrests, these would-be Confeder-
ates were not banned.

Los Angeles furnished but one representative
to the Union army — that is, one who was an
actual resident of the city at the breaking out
of the war — and he was Charles M. Jenkins, of
the California Hundred. One company of the
Native California Battalion was raised in Los
Angeles and one in Santa Barbara. This bat-
talion did service against the Indians in Arizona.
Camp Latham was established at Ballona in
1861, and the Fourth California Infantry was
stationed there for a time. Camp Dunn was es-
tablished at Wilmington in 1862. .\I1 [he sup-
plies for the soldiers in .Arizona, Now Mcxim
and LUah passed through Wilmington. .\ small
force was kept at Camp Dunn during the war.
.■\t one time a squad of soldiers was stationed at
Los Angeles to keep the secessionists in check.

The gYeat drought of 1863 and 1864 sealed the
dnnm of cattle raising as the distinctive industry

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

139

of Los Angeles. The plentiful rainfalls of 1865-
66 gave abundant feed, but the ranchos were
thinly stocked and their owners were in no con-
dition financially to add to their depleted herds.
It was evident that the dynasty of the cattle
kings was ended. Hereafter there must be new
industries, new methods, new men, if the coun-
try would thrive.

SUIiDIVISION OF LARGE RANCHOS.

In 1868, what was known as the Stearns'
ranchos, an immense body of land, containing
about 150,000 acres, and lying between the San
Gabriel and Santa Ana rivers, was sold to a
syndicate of San Francisco capitalists. This
tract contained the original ranchos of Los Coy-
otes, La Habra, San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana,
Las Bolsas y Paredes, La Bolsa Chica, and part
of the Alamitos. It was divided into sections
and subdivisions of sections in 1868, and
put on sale in tracts of forty ncres and upward.
Immigration began to drift southward in 1868
and 1869 and a number of settlers purchased
farms in the Stearns' ranchos and in others that
had been divided or partially divided, and began
raising grain. The soil was rich and the yield
was enormous. As yet but little attention had
been paid to fruit culture. The decade closed
with the agricultural transformation of the
county fairly begun.

THE THIRD DECADE— 1870-1880.

RAILROADS.'

The third decade of American supremacy in
Southern California was an era of railroad build-
ing and colony founding. The first railroad line
constructed in the county extended from Los
.Vngeles city to Wilmington. It was completed
October 26, 1869. The legislature, in 1868,
l)assed bills authorizing the board of supervisors
of the county to subscribe $150,000 to the capital
stock of a railroad between Los Angeles and
Wilmington, and the mayor and common coun-
cil to subscribe $75,000 to the same object. An
election was held and the bonds carried. Ground
was broken at Wilmington, March 19, 1868, and
the road pushed to completion. Freights and
fare were high. It cost $6 to get a ton of freight
from anchorage to Los Angeles. It cost a pas-
senger a dollar and a half from the steamer on
one of I'.anning's tugs to Wilmington and a dol-
lar more on the railroad to reach the city. Yet
nobody complainetl and the people clamored for
more railroads. The Southern Pacific was build-
ing a trans-continental line southeastward and
there was a chance for Los Angeles on a
through line. After considerable negotiation be-

tween a committee of the people of Los Angeles
and the directors of the Southern Pacific Rail-
road, the Southern Pacific people proposed to
build fifty miles of their main trunk line through
Los Angeles county, twenty-five miles north
from the city and twenty-five east, on condition
that the people vote a subsidy to the company
of five per cent of the taxable property of the
county. The Los Angeles and San Pedro Rail-
road, valued at $225,000, was to be part of the
consideration.

An election was called, November 5, 1872, and
the proposition accepted by the people. The
total consideration, bonds and lands, given the
railroad, amounted to $610,000. To appease the
people of the southeastern part of the county and
secure their votes for the bonds, the railroad
company agreed to build a branch road to Ana-
heim, twenty-seven miles. Work on the road
was pushed vigorously and trains to San Fer-
nando, the northern end, and to Spadra, the east-
ern end, were run .'Vpril 24, 1874. The great
tunnel, 6,964 feet long, under a spur of the San
Fernando mountains, twenty-seven miles north
of Los Angeles, delayed the early completion
of the road. On the 6th of September, 1876,
the northern and southern ends of the road
were united at Soledad Station, in a caiion of that
name ; the golden spike was driven with a ham-
mer of silver, and a train bearing the dignitaries
of the company and invited guests passed over
the road from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
A grand bancjuet was held in Union hall, fol-
lowed by a grand ball, which lasted till morning,
when the San Franciscans returned to their
home city on the first through train over the
road from the Los Angeles end. The road was
pushed on eastward, and in 1882 was completed
to El Paso, where it united with the eastern end
and Los. Angeles had a trans-continental road.
. The Anaheim branch was coiupleted to that
town January 17, 1875.

The Los Angeles and Independence Rail-
Ko.M) Company was incorporated in January,
T875. The purpose of the company was to build a
railroad beginning at Santa Monica and pass-
ing through Los .\ngeles and San Bernardino
and froiu there by way of the Cajon Pass to
Independence, Inyo county. Work was begun
at once and the first train between Los Angeles
and Santa Monica passed over the road Decem-
ber I, 1875. A long wharf was built at Santa
Monica and ocean steamers slopped there for
passengers and freight. The financial panic of
1875 and the dry years that followed put an
end to the extension of the road. In 1878 it was
sold to the Southern Pacific Company, and that
coiupany pulled down the wharf because it did
not pay to maintain two shipping points.

140

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

COLONIES.

Among the earliest colony projects of this
decade was the San Tasqual plantation scheme.
Its prospectus was published in the city papers
during April and May, 1870. The advertise-
ments stated that "The tract of land selected is
a portion of the San Pasqual ranch in Los An-
geles county, comprising 1,750 acres of the finest
quality. A ditch which forms the northern
boundary of the tract, at a cost of $10,000, has
also been purchased. The ditch furnishes in
the driest seasons sufficient water to irrigate
the entire tract. It is proposed to cultivate this
land with oranges, lemons, olives, nuts, raisins,
grapes, etc., and to conunencc at once. For
this purpose the above company has been
formed, with a capital of $200,000, divided into
4,000 shares of $50 each. Payments to be made
in regular and easy installments as follows :
$10 per share at date of subscription and $5
each year afterward till the whole amount is
paid. All money to be used in paying for the
land and cultivating the same." When the trees
and vines should come into bearing it was pro-
posed to divide the lands among the colonists
on the plan that the Anaheim colony lands were
divided among the shareholders in 1859. The
projectors of the scheme were San Francisco
and Los Angeles capitalists. Subscription
books were opened at the office of R. M. Wid-
ney in the Ilelhnan Bank building. Stock in
the company did not go of? like the proverbial
hot cakes. The scheme was a failure. Citrus
fruit culture then was in its infancy, and a very
young infant at that. The few orange orchards
in the county were on the sandy land of the
river bottom. The scheme of growing oranges
on the gravelly lands of the San Pasqual was
laughed to scorn by the wise oldxtimers who
knew it all.

The most successful colony scheme of the
'70s was the Indiana Colony of California. It
had its inception in Ind'anapolis, Ind., in the
winter of 1872-73. Dr. T. B. Elliott was the
originator of the scheme, and he, D. M. Berry,
J. H. Baker and Calvin Fletcher, its most active
]jromoters. The committee sent out to view
tlie land decided the San Pasqual rancho was
the best location ofTere<l. An incorporation was
effected under the name of the San Gabriel
Orange Grove Association. The capital stock
was fi.xed at $25,000, divided into 100 shares of
$250 each. In December, 1873, the associa-
tion purchased Dr. J. S. Griffin's interest in the
San Pasqual ranclio, consisting of about 4,000
acres; 1,500 acres of the choicest land in the
tract were subdivided into lots varying in size
from fifteen to sixtv acres.

January 27, 1874, the lands were distributed
on the basis of fifteen acres to a share of stock,
and the colonists who were on the ground im-
mediately set to work planting their lands in
oranges, raising grapes and deciduous fruits.
"It is a singular fact," says Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr,
"that there was not a professional and hardly
a iiractical horticulturist or farmer among them."
Nevertheless they made a success of fruit cul-
ture and demonstrated the fact that oranges
could be grown on the mesa lands. April 22,
1875, the settlement ceased to be the Indiana
Colony and officially became Pasadena. To Dr.
T. B. Elliott, the originator of the California
Colony scheme, belongs the credit of conferring
on Pasadena its euphonious name. The word is
of Indian origin, Chippewa dialect, and means
"Crown of the Valley."

So rapidly were the Indiana Colony lands
absorbed by settlers that in four years after
their purchase only a few small tracts remained
unsold. In 1876, B. D. Wilson threw on the
market about 2,500 acres lying eastward of
h'air C)aks avenue. This was the Lake \'ine-
yard Land and Water Company tract. The set-
tlers on this tract were known as "east siders."
while the original colonists were the "west
siders," Fair Oaks avenue being the division
line. A postoffice had been established March
15, 1875, but had been discontinued in Decem-
ber of that year because no one cared to serve
as postmaster at a salary of a dollar a month.
September 21, 1876, L. D. HoUingsworth, who
had erected a building and opened a store near
the corner of Fair Oaks avenue and Colora<lo
street, secured the re-establishment of the ]iost-
olfice, and the office was kept in his store. Thus
was the germ of the city of Pasadena planted,
but it took it nearly a decade to germinate. At
the beginning of the fourth decade (1880) the
"town consisted of a store and postoffice build-
ing, a blacksmith shop, a meat market and a
sclioolhousc at the crossroads near the center
of the settlement." The history of the city of
Pasadena and a record of its wonderful growth
belong in the fourth decade.

PoMON.A is a child of the colony era. While
not incorporated as a colony, like Pasadena, it
owes its origin to a co-operative colony-promo-
ting association. Early in 1875, Louis Phillips
sold to P. C. Tonner, Cyrus Burdick and I'ran-
cisco Palomeres 2,700 acres of the \'ejar iiorlion
of the San Jose rancho. Tonner and his asso-
ciates sold their ]nirchase, shortly after tlu-x
made it, to the Los Angeles Immigration and
Land Co-operative .Association. This associa-
tion was incorporated December 10, 1874, with
a capital stock of $250,000, divided into 2.500
shares, at a par value of $100 per share. Its

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

officers were: Thomas A. Garey, president; C.
E. While, vice-president ; L. M. Holt, secretary ;
Milton Thomas, manager; R. M. Town, assist-
ant manager, and H. G. Crow, treasurer. Its
principal object was the subdivision of large
land holdings and the placing of these on the
market in small tracts for settlement. The asso-
ciation surveyed and subdivided 2,500 acres of
its purchase. The town of Pomona, located
near the center of the tract, was platted and 640
acres adjoining the town site was subdivided
into five-acre lots. The remainder of the 2,500
acres was cut up into forty-acre tracts. In No-
vember, 1875, the town had a hotel, a drug store,
a dry goeds store, two groceries, a meat market
and eight or ten dwelling houses. February 22,
23 and 24, 1876, a great auction sale of land and
town lots was held on the town site. The first
day's sale realized $19,000, which was a big-
thing in those days. The farm land brought an
average of $64 per acre. A nundjer of artesian
wells had been sunk and a reservoir holding-
two and a half million gallons of water con-
.'tructed. The Southern Pacific Railroad, which,
in conformity with the requirements of the sub-
sidy granted by the county in 1873, had been
built eastward twenty-five miles to Spadra, was
extended to Pomona and that town became the
railroad shipping point for Riverside, another
colony of the early '70s. Pomona seemed to be
on the high road to prosperity, but disaster
struck it. First the dry season of 1876-77 dem-
onstrated the need of a more abundant water
supply, and ne.xt a disastrous fire on the night
of July 30, 1877, swept away nearly all of the
town. These disasters checked the growth of
the town and settlement. In 1880 the popula-
tion of the town was only 130. The next
decade saw a wonderful growth in the town and
country around.

Sant.x Monica was another town that was
founded in this decade. Early in 1875, Senator
J. P. Jones, of Nevada, and Col. R. S. Baker
subdivided a portion of the Rancho San Vicente,
lying on the mesa adjoining the bay of Santa
Monica. The town was named after the bay.
July 16, 1875, a great sale of lots was held at
the town site. An excursion steamer came down
from San Francisco, loaded with lot buyers,
and the people of Los Angeles rallied in great
numbers to the site of the "Zenith City by the
Sunset Sea," as the silver-tongued orator of the
Pacific slope, Tom Fitch, named it. Lots on
the barren mesa sold at prices ranging from
$100 to $500. The town's growth was rapid.
In less than nine months after its founding it
had 160 houses and 1,000 inhabitants. The
Los Angeles & Independence Railroad had been
completed to Los .'Xngclcs. A wharf had been

built and Santa Monica was becoming a ship-
ping point of great importance. Then a financial
blight struck the fortunes of Senator Jones.
The railroad was sold to the Southern Pacific
Railroad ; the wharf was pulled down, and the
town fell into a decline. In 1880 it and its sub-
urb. South Santa Monica, had only 350 inhab-
itants.

The decade that had been ushered in with
a boom closed in gloom. The bank fail-
ures of 1875-76 brought on a monetary crisis.
The total failure of the Temple & Work-
man Bank swept away the fortunes of many.
The dry years of 1876-77 supplemented the bank
disasters by killing the sheep industry that to
a certain extent had taken the place of the cattle
industry of the previous decade. The railroad to
San hrancisco had not proved a blessing.
Freighl charges were high and the price of grain
low. It look about all the farmer received for
his grain crop to pay freight, warehouse and
commission charges. Indeed, he was lucky if
after his crop was sold he did not have to borrow
money to pay a deficit — mortgage his farni for
the privilege of farming it. San Francisco was
his only market. It was evident that the South-
ern California farmer, with a market 500 miles
away, could not compete with the grain growers
of the central part of the state, with a market
at their doors. Grain growing in the third
decade of American occupation had been but
little less disastrous than cattle raising in the
second. What could the people do?

THE FOUKTII DECADE— 1880-1890.

The third decade had set in gloom. No
roseate hues irradiated the rise of the fourth.
The season of. 1S80-81 was one of the dreaded
dry years. The total rainfall was only 5.32
inches. Crops were a partial failure. There
were, however, no such harrowing sights as
were seen in the famine years. There were no
cattle on a thousand hills, no sheep in the val-
leys, starving to death. The flocks and the herds
had disappeared. The more provident husband-
men who now possessed the ranchos, once the
domain of the cattle kings and their retainers,
were able to provide sustenance for their stock,
though the former and the latter rains came
not. Irrigation had been made to rectify the
shortcomings of nature, and works had taken
the place of faith in novenas.*

The next season showed a decided improve-
n-ient. Crops were fair and prices good. The

*.A term of nine days set apart for prayers, fre-
quently resorted to during dry years in the Spanish
and Mexican eras.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Soiitliern Pacific Railroad, pushing eastward,
had opened a market for Southern Cahfornia
products in the mining regions of Arizona. Tlie
completion of the road in 1882 gave Los Angeles
a trans-continental route, and immigration
began to drift in — slowly and cautiously at first
— then with more confidence and in larger vol-
ume. The mortgaged farmers took the first
opportunity to unload on the newcomers and
chuckled over their success. lUit when they
began to look around for reinvestment they
found there had been a sudden rise in the finan-
cial temperature. The newcomers brought
money with them to develop their purchases
and the wheels of industry began to go round.
The seasons continued good, that of 1884 being
a flood year. Rumors came of a railroad on the
thirty-fifth parallel, building westward— rumors
that later became a certainty.

ISEGINNING OI-' THE DOOM.

In 1S85 the Santa Fe system leased the right
to run trains over the Southern Pacific road from
Deming to Los Angeles. Later on it obtained
an interest in the Atlantic & Pacific road be-
tween Albuquerque and Barstow. From Rar-
stow it constructed the Southern California Rail-
road through the Cajoii Pass to San Bernardino,
and thence westward to Mud Springs, where "it
united with the San Gabriel Valley road, which
it had absorbed. The completion of this road
gave Southern California two complete trans-
continental lines, and then the boom was on in
earnest. It had begun in 1886 and gathered
volume as it progressed. There had been a
steady advance in the values of real estate from
i8iS2, when the upward movement began, to
i88Ci, but no inflation. Additions and subdivi-
sions had been made in the older cities and
towns, but no new towns created. Early in 1887
town-making I)egan and it went with a rush, a
boom when once begun. As the Southern Cali-
fornia Railway approached completion, town-
making seemed to become ei)idemic. Within
the first six months of 1887, between the eastern
limits of Los Angeles city and the western line
of San Bernardino county, a distance, by way of
the Southern California Railway, of thirty-six
miles, there were twenty-five cities and towns
located — an average of one to every mile and
a half of the road. On the Southern Pacific
there were eight and thrown in between the
l)arallel railroads there were three more — mak-
ing a grand total of thirty-six cities and towns
in the San Gabriel valley. Tiie only limit to
the greatness of a city was the lioumlary lines
of the adjoining cities.

Other parts of the county were keeping i)ace
with the San Gabriel vallex in town-making

Up on the mountains, down in the desert, and
out on the arid mesa, town sites were located and
town lots sold. What was to support these
towns, the lot purchaser did not stop to con-
sider. He hoped to find an easier dupe than
himself, and sell at an advance. The more inac-
cessible a town, the better the lots in it seemeij
to sell. Romberg's twin cities, Manchester and
Border City, were located on the steep sides
of the Sierra Madre mountains, overlooking the
Mojave desert. The sites of the twin cities
could be seen through a field glass on a clear
day, and the easiest way to reach them was l)y
a balloon. Yet Flomberg sold about all of the
4,000 lots that he carved out of two quarter
sections of government land, and realized about
$50,000 by the operation. Chicago Park was
located in the wash of the San Gabriel river,
where the rocks were so thick that it was im-
possible to drive a corner stake, yet its 2,300
lots changed hands. Santiago, with its 2,000
lots, was out on a \\aterless desert, where even
the coyotes had to carry canteens when they
crossed it. Yet fojls rushed in w-here coyotes
feared to tread, and — bought lots.

And yet the boom was not all bilk. There
was legitimate speculation and there were honest
real-estate agents. The fellows who blew the
bubble to its greatest inflation were professional
boomers, who had learned the tricks of their
trade in the I)oom cities of the w^est. They came
here not to build up the country, but to make
money — honestly if they could make it no other
way. It is needless to say they made it the other
way.

The magnitude of our great real-estate boom
can be more accurately measured bv a monev
standard than any other. The total considera-
tion named in the instruments filed for recortl
with the county recorder in 1887 reached the
enormous sum of $98,084,162. Yet this does
not tell half the story. Thousands of agreements
and contracts of sale were never recordeil. Cnn-
tracts were often transferred anywhere from one
to half a dozen times as the property was resold,
but when the deed was given the consideration
named would be that of the first sale, although
the last might be a hundred or a thousand i)er
cent above the first. It is safe to say that the
total consideration of all the sales made in 1887
in Los Angeles county alone reached $2(X).ooo,-
000.

The great booms of fornu'r times jiale into
insignificance when comjiared with ours. The
capital slock of John Law's National P.ank of
I'"rance, with his Mississippi grants thrown in,
only figured up about $15,000.000 — a sum equal
to our real-estate transfer for one month, yet the
bursting of the Mississippi bubble very nearly

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD.

143

bankrupted the Frencli empire. The capital in-
vested in the Darien colonization scheme, which
bankrupted Scotland and came near plunging-
all Europe into war, was only 220,000 pounds
sterling, a stmi about equal to our real-estate
transfers for one day. We ought to feel proud
of our boom.

The collapse began in the fall of 1887. Specu-
lators had loaded up for the eastern dupes who
were reported coming by thousands to the land
of promise. The dupes did not come in great
numbers and the visitors who came refused to
be duped. Then the real-estate craze began to
subside. Those who had loaded for profit tried
to unload at cost. Some refused to believe the
boom was over, and held on till their burthens
crushed them. Others let go at once and saved
something out of the crash that followed. Dur-
ing 1888, the adjusting process was going on.
Huilding was active and people still hopeful.
In 1889 the outlook was gloomy. Even the
most sanguine began to realize that the boom
was over. The contraction in values was even
more rapid than had been the expansion. Choice
business lots and the s^tes of palace hotels in
the new cities, that had been valued by the front
foot, were now offered by the acre, and there
were no takers. The fourth decade, like the
third, closed in gloom.

THE FIFTH DECADE— 1890-1900.

The financial depression in which the fourth
decade closed did not last long. The energy and
the push that had been evolved during the boom
had received a momentary check, but they were
not dead. There was no time to indulge in whin-
ing or repining. Adversity had followed closely
on the heels of prosperity and the necessity for
bread and butter was more pressing than the
need of new towns. The millionaire of a boom
metropolis, when the doom of his phantom city
had been pronounced, looked out upon a ghostly
array of white stakes, often the only visible evi-
dence of the city that was to be. If his city was
not hopelessly buried under a mortgage, he
plowed under business streets and the sites of
tourist hotels and planted them with fruit trees
or sowed them in grain.

The professional boomers — the fellows of the
baser sort — when the collapse came, betook
themselves to pastures new. Retributive jus-
tice overtook a few of them and they did en-
forced service to the country in striped uniforms.
When the county at large, in 1890, took an in-
ventory to ascertain the profit or loss of the
previous decade, there was a good showing of
assets on the credit side. Los Angeles city had
increased its population from 11,150 to 50,395

in ten years, and its assessed wealth from six
to fifty million dollars. Pasadena, from a cross-
roads grocery, had grown to a city of 5,000 in-
habitants, with its banks, daily newspapers and
palatial business blocks. Pomona, from 130
people in 1880, had increased to 3,634 in 1890.
The county at large had raised the number of
its people from 33,881 in 1880 to 101,454 in 1890,
with 13.589 taken off to form Orange county.
Its wealth had increased from $18,000,000 to
$80,000,000.

As Pasadena had soared highest in the balloon
of inflation, when the drop came she struck bot-
tom the hardest. iHer orange groves, once her
pride and boast, had been mostly sacrificed on
the altar of town lots ; and what the boomer had
left the cottony scale had devastated. But the
boomer departed or ceased to boom, and the
cottony scale met its Nemesis in the Australian
lady-bug. Then tl.e work of rehabilitation
began ; and it is remarkable what perseverance,
coupled with energy and intelligence, did in a
short time. In less than two years Pasadena was
on the high road to prosperity, and she has kept
pattering along that road at a rapid rate ever
since. The reaction throughout the county was
equally rapid. After the entanglements in real-
estate titles, that the boom had made, were
readjusted the people pursued the even tenor
of their ways, building up the real cities, plant-
ing orange groves, increasing irrigating facili-
ties and promoting new schemes for developing
the country.

In 1893 c-anie the bank panic, when nearly
every bank in the county closed its doors, but
in a few weeks all except two were doing busi-
ness at the old stands.

At the beginning of the Spanish war, Los An-
geles county furnished five companies of the
Seventh Regiment California Volunteers, three
from Los Angeles city, one from Pasadena and
one from Pomona. This regiment, which was
made up of volunteers from Southern Califor-
nia, took its departure for San Francisco, May
5, 1898, amidst the plaudits of an immense mul-
titude. It remained encamped there until the
close of the war, when the volunteers were dis-
charged. Company D, California Light Artil-
lery, made up of volunteers from the southern
counties, was sent to Manila and saw consider-
able active service.

The most prominent event of the closing years
of the fifth decade was the free harbor fight,
a contest in which the Southern Pacific Railroad
and a few of its local auxiliaries were arrayed
against the people of the county in regard to
the location of a harbor. The Southern Pacific
Company, in 1891. had built a long wharf in
the bay of Santa Monica at Port Los Angeles.

14-t

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

When the question of a free harbor came up,
Colhs P. Huntifigton, then the president of the
road, used all liis powerful influence in congress
to secure an appropriation for a harbor at Port
Los Angeles. As this would be virtually con-
trolled by him and would defeat an appropria-
tion for a harbor at San Pedro, the people, with
a few exceptions, opposed his scheme. The fight
was a protracted one, but the people won. In
1898 congress voted an appropriation of $3,900,-
000 for the construction of breakwaters in the
bay of San Pedro. The contract for their con-
struction was let to Heldmaier & Neu, of Chi-
cago, for $1,303,198.54. The Free Harbor Jubi-
lee, which was celebrated at San Pedro, April
27, and at Los Angeles April 28 and 29, 1899,
was one of the great events of the decade. On
that occasion the first boatload of rock from the
Catalina quarries was dumped on the site of the
breakwater. Misfortune overtook the con-
tractors. Neu was killed in a runaway at Los
Angeles before work was begun, and Held-
maier failing to push the work, his contract was
cancelled by the government. May 14, 1900,
a contract was let to the California Construction
Company, of San Francisco, for $2,375,546.05,
over a million dollars above the former con-
tract.

The three dry vears with which the decade

and the century closed were not accompanied by
the disasters which overtook the county in for-
mer years of drought. Except in a few locali-
ties, the people thrived and prospered, and tlie
county increased in population during the
decade 70,000.

LIST OF THE CITIES AND TOWNS OF LOS ANGELES

WITH THE DATES OF THEIR FDUNDINO AND

THE POPULATION OF EACH ACCOKUING

TO THE CENSUS OF 1900.

Founded. Population.

Alhambra 1SS4 808

Avalon 1887 178

Azusa 1887 863

liurbank 1887 366

Clarejuont 1887 ISO

Covina 1887 255

Compton 1809 636

Downey 1873 700

El Monte 1853 266

Glendale 1883 200

Glcndora 1SS7 492

Hollywood 1887 200

Inglewood 1887 200

Irvindale 1894 141

Lordsburg 1887 500

Long Beach 1884 2.252

Los Angeles 1781 102,479

Monrovia : 1886 1,205

Pasadena 1875 9,117

Pomona 1875 5,526

Norwalk 1873 596

Newhall 1877 202

Redondo 1887 855

San Gabriel 1775 737

San Fernando 1873 200

San Pedro 1851 1,787

Santa Monica 1875 3,057

South Pasadena 1885 1,001

Whittier 1887 1,590

Wilmington 1858 500

Only towns whose population exceeds one hundred are in-
cluded in the above list.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES.

SHAPING THE CITY.

PIFTY years after its founding, Los An-
geles was like the earth on the murning
of creation, "without form." It had no
plat or plan, no map and no official survey of
its boundaries. The streets were crooked, ir-
regular and undefined. The houses stood at
different angles to the streets, and the house
lots were of all geometrical shapes and forms.
No man held a written title to his land and pos-
session was ten parts of the law; indeed, it was
all the law he had to protect his title. Not to
use his land was to lose it.

With the fall of the missions a spasm of terri-
torial expansion seized upon the colonists. In
1834, the territorial legislature, by an enactment,
fixed the boundaries of the pueI)lo of Los An-
geles at "two leagues to each of the four winds,
measuring from the center of the plaza." This
gave the pueblo an area of sixteen square leagues
or over one hundred square nii!es. Next year
(1835) Los .Angeles was made the capital of Alta

California by the Mexican congress and rai-^ed
to the dignity of a city ; and then its first-<real-
estate boom was on. There was an increased
demand for lots and lands, but there were no
maps or plats to grant by; and no additions or
subdivisions of the pueblo lands on the market.
All the unoccupied lands belonged to the munic-
ipality and when a citizen wanted a house lot
to build on, he petitioned the ayuntamiento for
a lot, anil if the piece asked for was vacant he
was granted a lot, large or small, deep or shal-
low, on the street or off it, just as it happened.
With the growth of the town, the confusion
and irregularity increased. The disputes arising
from overlapping grants, conflicting property
lines and indefinite descriptions intluced the
ayuntamiento of 1836 to appoint a commission
to investigate anil report upon the manner of
granting house lots and agricultural lands. The
commissioners reported "that they had con-
sulted with several of the founders and with old
settlers, who declared that from the founding
of the town the concession of lots and lands

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAnilCAL RECORD.

145

had been made verbally without any other for-
mality than locating and measin-ing the extent
of the land the fortunate one siiould occupy."

"In order to present a fuller report your com-
mission obtained an 'Instruction,' signed by Don
Jose Francisco de Ortega, dated at San Gabriel
February 2, 1782, and we noted tliat Articles
3, 4 and 17 of said Instruction provides that con-
cession of said agricultural lands and house lots
must be made by the government, which shall
issue the respective titles to the grantees. Ac-
cording to the opinion of the city's advisers, said
"Instruction' or at least the three articles re-
tired to, have not been observed, as there is
no property owner who can show a legal title to
liis property."

The connnissioners can not do otherwise but
call attention of the Most Illustrious Ayuntami-
ento to the evil consequence which may result by
reason of said abuses and recommend that some
means may be devised that they may be avoided.
"God and Liberty."

Abel Ste.-vrns,
Cacilio V.\ldez,
Jose M. Herrera,

Coininissioiiers.

Angeles, March 8, 1836.

Acting on the report of the connnissioners,
the ayuntamiento required all holders of prop-
erty to apply for written titles. But the poco
ticmpo ways of the pobladores (colonists) could
not be altogether overcome. We find from the
records that in 1847 the land of Mrs. Carmen
Navarro, one of the founders of the town, was
denounced (filed on) because she could not show
a written title to it. The ayuntamiento decided
"that as she had always been allowed to hold it
lier claim should be respected, because she was
one of the founders, which makes her entitled
to a lot on which to live."

March 17, 1836, "a commission on streets,
plazas and alleys" was appointed to report a plan
for repairing "the monstrous irregularity of the
streets brought about by ceding house lots and
erecting houses in this pueblo."

The conmiission reported in favor of "formu-
lating a plat of the city as it actually exists, on
which shall be marked the names of tlie streets,
alleys and plazas ; also, the house lots and com-
mon lands of the pueblo." But nothing came
of the report, no plat was made and the ayun-
tamiento went on in the same old way, granting
lots of all shapes and forms.

In March, 1846, another connnission was ap-
pointed to locate the bounds of the pueblo lands.
All that was done was to measure two leagues
"in the direction of the four winds from the plaza
church" and set stakes to mark the boundarv

lines. Then came the .American conquest of
California and the da)S of poco tiempo were
numbered. In 1847, after the conquest, another
attempt was made to straighten and narrow the
streets. A commission was appointed to try to
bring order out of the chaos into which the
streets had fallen. The commissioners reported,
July 22, 1847, ''s follows: "Your commissioners
could not but be amazed seeing the disorder and
the manner how the streets run. More particu-
larly the street which leads to the cemetery,
whose width is out of proportion to its length ;
and whose aspect offends the sense of the beauti-
ful which should prevail in the city. When
discussing this state of affairs with the syndic
(city attorney), he informed us that on receiving
his instructions from the ayuntamiento he was
ordered to give the streets a width of fifteen
varas (about 42 feet). This he found to be in con-
flict witli the statutes. The law referred to is in
r.iHilx- 4. ChapUr 7, Statute 10 (probably a com-
pilatinu ijf the "Law of the Indies," two or three
centuries old and brought from Spain to Mex-
ico and from there to California). The law reads :
"In cold countries the streets shall be wide and
in warm countries narrow ; and when there are
horses it would be convenient to have wide
streets for purpose of an occasional defense or to
widen them in the form above mentioned, care
being taken that nothing is done to spoil the
looks of the buildings, weaken the points of de-
fense or encroach upon the comfort of the peo-
ple."

"The instructions given the syndic by the
ayuntamiento are absolutely opposed to this
law and therefore illegal."

It probably never occurred to the connnission
to question the wisdom of so senseless a law ;
it had been a law in Spanish-America for centur-
ies, and therefore must be venerated for its an-
tiquity.

A iDlind, unreasoning faith in the wisdom of
church and state has been the undoing of the
Spanish people. Apparently the commission did
nothing more than report. California being a
warm country, the streets perforce must be nar-
row.

The same \ear a connnission was appointed
to "square the plaza." Through carelessness
some of the houses fronting on the square had
l)cen allowed to encroach upon it ; others were
set back so that the boundary lines of the plaza
zigzagged back and forth like a Virginia rail
fence. The neighborhood of the plaza was the
aristocratic residence quarter of the city then,
and a plaza front was considered high-toned.
The commissioners found tJie squaring of the
plaza as difificult a problem as the squaring of
a circle. After nianv trials and tribulations the

146

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

commissioners succeLcled in overcoming most of
the irregularities by reducing the area of the
plaza. The houses that protruded were not torn
down, but the property lines of the house owners
moved forward. The north, south and west lines
each measured 134 varas and the east line 112
varas after "squaring."

The ayuntamiento attempted to open a street
from the plaza north of the church (now West
Marchessault street), but Pedro Cabrera, who
had been granted a lot which fell in the line 'of
the street, refused to give up his plaza front for
a better lot without that aristocratic appendage
which the council offered him. Then the city
authorities offered him as compensation for the
difference a certain number of days' labor of the
chain gang (the treasury was in its usual state of
collapse), but Pedro could not be traded out of a
plaza front and thus sidetracked in his social
status, so the street took a twist around Pedro's
lot, a twist that fifty years has not straightened
out. The irregularities in granting portions of
the unapportioned city lands still continued and
the confusion of titles increased.

In May, 1849, the territorial governor, Gen.
Bennet Riley, sent a request to the ayuntamiento
for a city map and information in regard to the
manner of granting city lots. The ayuntamiento
replied that there was no map of the city in
existence and no surveyor here wdio could make
cne. The governor was asked to send a sur-
veyor to make a plan or plat of the city. He was
also informed that in making land grants within
"the perimeter of two leagues square" the city
acted in the belief that it is entitled to that much
land as a pueblo.

Lieut. E. O. C. Ord of the United States Army
was sent down by the governor to plat the city.
July 18, 1849, ^1*^ submitted two propositions to
the ayuntamiento : "He would make a map of
the city, marking boundary lines and points of
the municipal lands for $1,500 coin, ten lots se-
lected from among the defined lots on the map
and vacant lands to the extent of 1,000 varas to
be selected in sections of 200 varas wherever
he may choose it ; or he would make a map for
$3,000 in coin."

The ayuntamiento chose the last proposition —
the president prophetically remarking that the
time might come in the future when the land
alone might be worth $3,000. The money to
pay for the survey was borrowed from Juan
Temple at the rate of one per cent per month
and lots pledged as security for payment.

The ayuntamiento also decided that there
should be embodied in the map a plan of all the
lands actually under cultivation from the princi-
pal dam down to tlic last cultivated field below.
'As to the lots that should be shown on the map

they should begin at the cemetery (Calvary) and
end with the house of Botiller (near Twelfth
street). As to the commonalty lands of this city
the surveyor should determine the four points
of the compass, and, taking the parish church for
a center, measure two leagues in each cardinal
direction. These lines will bisect the four sides
of a square within which the lands of the mu-
nicipality will be contained, the area of the same
being sixteen square leagues and each side of the
square measuring four leagues.* The United
States claims commission rejected the city's
claim to sixteen square leagues, and in 1856
confirmed its title to four square leagues, the di-
mensions of the old pueblo under the rule of
Spain.

Lieut. Ord, assisted by William R. Hutton,
completed his Plan de la Ciudad de Los An-
geles, August 29, 1849. He divided into blocks
all that portion of the city bounded north by
First street and the base of the first line of hills,
east by i\Iain street, south by Twelfth street and
west by Figueroa street ; and into lots all of the
above to Eighth street ; also into lots and blocks
that portion of the city north of Short street to
College street and west of Upper Main (now San
Fernando) street to the base of the hills. On the
"plan" the lands between Main street and the
river are designated as "plough grounds, gar-
dens, corn and vine lands." The streets in the
older portion of the city are marked on the map,
but not named. The blocks, except the tier be-
tween First and Second streets, are each 600 feet
in length and are divided into ten lots, each 120
feet front by 165 feet deep.

Ord took his compass course for the line of
Main street, south 24° 43' west from the corner
opposite Jose Antonio Carrillo's house, which
stood where the Pico house now stands. On his
map Main, Spring and I'^ort (now Broadway)
streets ran in parallel straight lines southerly
to Twelfth street. Travel, regardless of street
surveys, persisted in keeping on the mesa and
thus Main street, the principal thoroughfare to
the south, was made to bend to the westward
below Fifth, cutting off the lower ends of Spring
and Fort streets.

The names of the streets on Ord's plan are
given in both Spanish and English. Beginning
with Main street they are as follows : Calle Prin-
cipal, Main street ; Calle Primavcra. Spring
street (named for the season, spring) ; Calle For-
tin. Fort street (so named because the street ex-
tended northward would pass through the old
fort on the hill); Calle Loma, Hill street; Calle
.\ccytuna, Olive street ; Calle de Caridad, Street
of Charity (now Grand avenue) ; Calle de La

♦City archive

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

147

Espranza, the Street of Hope ; Calle de Las
Flores, the Street of Flowers ; Calle de Los
Chapules, the Street of Grasshoppers (now South
Figueroa street). Above the plaza church, the
north and south streets, were the Calle de Eter-
nidad, Eternity street (so named because it had
neither beginning or end, or rather because each
end terminated in steep hills). Calle del Toro,
Bull street (so named because the upper end of
the street terminated at the Corrida de Toro, the
bull ring, where bull fights were held; it is now
Castelar street) ; Calle de Las Avispas, Street of
Hornets, or Wasps ; Calle de Los Adobes, Adobe
street. The east and west streets were : Calle
Corta, Short street ; Calle Alta, High street ;
Calle de Las Virgines, Street of Virgins, and
Calle del Colegio, College street. This street, so
named because the ayuntamiento had given the
Catholic Church a grant of a tract of land for a
college, is the oidy street north of the plaza that
retains its original name.

Spring street was known as Calle de Caridad
(Street of Charity) at the time of the American
conquest. The town then was centered around
the plaza and the present Spring street was well
out in the suburbs. Its inhabitants were of the
poorer classes, who were largely dependent on
the charity of their wealthier neighbors around
the plaza ; hence the name, Calle de Caridad.
North Spring is part of an old road made a cen-
tury ago. It led around the base of the hills
out to the brea beds, where the inhabitants ob-
tained the crude asphaltum used for roofing. Ord
evidently transferred Spring street's original
name. La Caridad, to one of his western streets
which was a portion of the old road.

Main street, from its junction with Spring
south, in 1846 was known as Calle de La Alle-
gria. Junction street. Los Angeles street was
the Calle Principal. Whether the name had
been transferred to the present Main streetbefore
Ord's survey I have not been able to ascertain.
In the early years of the century Los Angeles
street was known as Calle de La Zanja, Ditch
street. Later on it was sometimes called Calle
de Los Vinas, Street of Vineyards ; and with its
continuation Calle de Los Huertos, Street of
Orchards (now San Pedro), formed the principal
highway southward to the Embarcedaro of San
Pedro.

Ord's survey or plan left some of the houses,
in the old parts of the city, in the middle of the
streets and others were cut ofT from street front-
age. The city council labored long and ardu-
ously to satisfy complainants and to satisfac-
torily adjust property lines to the new plan of the
city. Finally in 1854, an ordinance was passed
allowing property owners with no street outlet
to claim frontage to the streets nearest their

houses. Gradually the city took the form that
Ord had planned, and the "monstrous irregular-
ity" that had amazed the old regidores disap-
peared, but the streets widened instead of nar-
rowing, as they should have done to accord
with the Spanish street laws.

AMERICANIZING THE CITY.

Although the decree of the Mexican congress
making Los Angeles a city was published in
California in 1836, ten years later, when the
Americans took possession of it, it was still
known as El Pueblo, the town. Only in official
records and communications did it rise to the
dignity of a ciudad (city). American writers of
the decade previous to the conquest all refer to
it as the "pueblo;" and one of them, Hastings,
who came to California overland in 1843, 3"<^'
wrote a book describing the country and telling
how to get there, seems not to have heard its real
name, but calls it "Poabola, below;" and San
Jose "Poabola, above." The act incorporating it
as a city of the American regime was passed by
the legislature April 4, 1850. Its area, according
to that act, was four miles. Why the "legisla-
ture of a thousand drinks" pared down its do-
main of four square leagues that for seventy
years, under monarchy, empire and republic, it
had possessed without dispute, does not appear
in the act nor in the city records.

As the members of that legislature were
mostly "tenderfeet," recently the "plains across,"
they may not have known the difference between
an English mile and a Spanish ligua (league),
but the most charitable conclusion is, that they
deemed four square miles area enough for a city
of sixteen hundred people. Why incorporate
chaparral-covered hills and mustard-grown me-
sas, inhabited by coyotes, jack rabbits and
ground squirrels? So they made it a mile each
way from the plaza; and the city of Los An-
geles half a century ago ended at Fifth street
on the south ; on the north at the Catholic ceme-
tery ; its eastern boundary just included the river
and its western was hopelessly lost in the hills.
No one on that side knew just where the city
ended and the country began, and nobody cared,
for the land was considered worthless.

Two difTerent nations by legislative decree
had raised Los Angeles to the dignity of a city.
And yet it was not much of a city after all. With-
in its bounds there was not a graded street, a
sidewalk, a street lamp, a water pipe or a public
building of any kind belonging to the munici-
pality.

The first city election under its American in-
corporation was held July i, 1850. The officers
elected were : A. P. Hodges, mayor (who also
held the office of county coroner) ; Francisco

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Figueroa, treasurer; A. F. Coronel, city asses-
sor (also county assessor) ; Samuel Whiting, city
marshal (also county jailer).

The first common council met July 3, 1850,
and the first record of its doings reads : "Messrs.
David W. Alexander, Alexander Bell, Manuel
Requena, Juan Temple, Morris L. Goodman,
Cristobal Aquilar and Julian Chavez took the
oath of office in conformity with Section 3, Arti-
cle XI, of the state constitution, before Jona-
than R. Scott (justice of the peace), and entered
upon the discharge of their duties as members
of the common council of this city, to which
oftke they had been elected by the people on the
first day of this month." David W. Alexander
was elected president and Vicente del Campo
secretary. The members had been sworn to
support the constitution of the state of Califor-
nia, and yet there was no state. California had
not been admitted as a state of the Union. It
had taken upon itself the functions of a state.
The legislature had made counties and cities
and provided for their organization and govern-
ment, and a governor elected by the people had
approved the acts of the k'g;islalure. The state
government was a political nondescript. It had
sloughed ofif its territorial condition, but it could
not become a state until congress admitted it
into the Union and the slave-holding faction of
that body, headed by Jeff'erson Davis, would not
let it in.

The first common council of the city was patri-
otic and self-denying. The first resolution passed
was as follows : "It having been observed that in
other places the council members were drawing
a salary, it was unanimously resolved that the
members of this council shall receive neither
salary nor fees of whatsoever nature for dis-
charging their duties as snch." But some of them
wearied of serving an ungrateful public and tak-
ing their pay in honor. Before sixty days had
passed two had resigned, and at the end of the
year only two of the original memlicrs, David
W. Alexander and Manuel Rcqucna, were left.
There had been six resignations in eight months ;
and the first council had thirteen different mem-
bers during its short existence.

The process of Americanizing (he people was
no easy undertaking. The population of the city
and the laws were in a chaotic condition. It
was no easy task that these municipal legislators
entered upon, that of evolving order out of the
chaos left by the change of nations. The native
population neither understood the language nor
the customs of their new rulers, and the new-
comers among the Americans had very little tol-
eration for the Mexican ways and methods they
found prevailing in the cily. To keep jicacc be-
tween Ihc f.iclions rcciuired more tact than

knowledge of law in the legislator. Fortunately
the first council was made up of level-headed
men.

What to do with the Indian was the burning
issue of that day, not with the wild ones that stole
the rancheros' horses and cattle. For them when
caught there was but one penalty for their of-
fense, death.

It was the tame Indians, the Christianized ne-
ophytes of the missions, that worried the city fa-
thers. The Mission Indians constituted the labor
element of the city and country. When sober
they were harmless, but in their drunken orgies
they became veritable fiends, and the usual re-
sult of their Saturday night revels was a dead
Indian or two on Sunday morning; and all the
others, old and young, male and female, were
dead drunk.

They were herded in a corral and worked in
gangs on the streets, but the supply became too
great for city purposes ; so the council, ^Vugust
16, T850, passed this ordinance : "When the city
has no work in which to employ the chain gang,
the recorder shall, by means of notices conspicu-
ously posted, notify the public that such and such
a number of prisoners will be auctioned of¥ to the
highest bidder for private service ; and in that
manner they shall be disposed of for a sum
which shall not be less than the amount of their
fine for double the time which they were to
serve at hard labor." It would have been a right-
eous retribution on the white wretches who suj)-
plied the Indians with intoxicants if they could
have been sold into perpetual slavery.

Evidently auctioning off Indians to the highest
bidders paid the city quite a reveiuie, for at a
subsequent meeting of the council "the recorder
was authorized to pay the Indian alcaldes (chiefs)
the sum of one real (12} cents) out of every fine
collected from Indians the said alcaldes may
bring to the recorder for trial." A month or so
later the recorder presented a bill for $15, the
amount of money he had paid the alcaldes out ol
fines. At the rate of eight Indians to the dollar,
the alcaldes had evidently gathered up a hundred
and twenty poor Los.

Usually poor Lo paid a higher penalty for sin-
ning than his white brother, but there was one
city ordinance in which this was reversed. ".\r-
ticle 14 — For playing cards in the streets regard-
less of the kin<l of game; likewise for playing
any other game of the kind as is played in houses
that are paying a license for the privilege, the of-
fender shall be fined not less than $10 nor more
than $25, which shall be paid on the spot ; other-
wise he shall be sent to the chain gang for ten
days. If he be an Indian then he shall be fined
not le^s Ihan $3 nor more than $5 or sent to the
chain g.mg f.ir eight davs." .Vt first glance this

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

1-19

ordinance might seem to have been drafted in the
interest of morality, but a closer inspection will
show that it is for revenue only. The gambling
houses paid a license of $ioo a month. So for
their benefit the council put a protective tariff
on all kinds of gambling.

The whipping post, too, was used as a reforma-
tory agent to instill lessons of honesty and mor-
ality into the Indians. One court record reads :
"Chino Valencea ^,Indian) was fined $50 and
twenty-five lashes for stealing a pair of shears ;
the latter fine (the lashes) was paid promptly in
full ; for the former he stands committed to the
chain-gang for two months, unless it is sooner
paid." At the same session of the court a white
man was fined $30 for selling liquor to the In-
dians; "fine paid and defendant discharged."
Drunkenness, immorality and epidemics — civili-
zation's gifts to the aborigines — finally settled
the Indian question — settled it by exterminating
the Indian.

THE POST-OFFICE AND POSTAL SERVICE.

The post-ofifice at Los Angeles was established
April 9, 1850, nearly four years after California
had passed into the possession of the United
States. J. I'ugh was the first postmaster. There
had been a mail service in the territory and possi-
bly a post-ofifice in tlie pueblo under Spanish
rule. Once a month military couriers picked up
at presidios, pueblos and missions from San
Francisco to San Diego, their little budgets of
mail and carried them down the coast of Lower
California to Loreto, where the mail was taken
in sailing vessels across the gulf to San Bias.
The couriers made the round trip in a month.
The habilitados (paymaster) acted as postmas-
ters at the presidios. At the pueblos the alcalde
or some officer detailed for that purpose acted as
administrador de correos (postmaster). As but
few could read or write and there were no news-
papers taken the revenue of La casa 6 adminis-
tracion de correos la estafeta (post-ofifice) was
not large, and it did not require nuich of a \)o-
litical pull to secure the office of postmaster in
Los Angeles a century ago.

Under Mexican rule there was an irregular
land service, but most of the mail was carried
by sailing vessels. There was a route by the
Colorado River and Sonora much shorter than
the Lower California post road, but the Indians
had a bad habit of distributing the mail, and the
mail carriers along the road, and it was used only
when a military force made the trip. After the
conquest, in 1847, the military authorities estab-
lished a regular service between San Francisco
and San Diego. Soldier-carriers starting from
each end of the route met at Dana's Ranch,
half way, and, exchanging mail pouches, each

then returned to his starting point. It took
a fortnight for them to go and return. After the
soldiers were discharged, in the latter part of
1848, the land service was discontinued and the
mail was carried up and down the coast between
San Francisco and San Diego in sailing vessels.
Wind and weather permitting, a letter might
reach its destination in a few days ; with the ele-
ments against it, it might take a month to get
there.

In 1849, Wilson & Packard, whose store was
on Main street where the Farmers & Merchants'
Bank now stands, were the custodians of the let-
ters received at Los Angeles. A tub stood on
the end of a counter. Into this the letters were
dumped. Anyone expecting a letter was at lib-
erty to sort over the contents of the tub and
take away his mail. The office was conducted on
a free delivery system and every man was his
own postmaster. Col. John O. Wheeler, who
had clerked for the firm in 1849, bought out the
business in 1850, and still continued the laundry
post-ofifice. After the establishment of the post-
office an officious postal agent from San Fran-
cisco found fault with the tub post-office and free
and easy delivery system, and the colonel, who
had been acconmiodating the public free of
charge, told the agent to take his postal matter
elsewhere.

The coast mail was carried by steamers after a
regular line was established in 185 1, but the
service was not greatly improved. Tlie Lo^ An-
geles Star of October i, 1853, under the head of
"Information Wanted," sends forth this doleful
wail : "Can anybody tell us what has become of
the United States mail for this section of the
world? Some four weeks since the mail actually
arrived here. Since that time two other mails are
due. The mail rider comes and goes regularly
enougli, but the mail bags do not. One time he
says the mail is not landed at San Diego. Another
time there was so much of it his donkey could
not bring it and he sent it to San Pedro on the
steamer 'T. Flunt,' which carried it to San
Francisco. Thus it goes wandering up and down
the ocean." According to the Star, one mail was
fifty-two days in transmission from San Fran-
cisco to Los Angeles.

The first regular mail service Los Angeles ob-
tained was by the Butterfield stage line. This
was the longest mail stage line ever organized
and the best managed. Its eastern termini
were St. Louis and Memphis ; its western term-
inus San Francisco. Its lenglh was 2,881 miles.
It began operation in September, 1858, and the
first stage from the east carrying mail reached
Los Angeles, October 7, 1858. The first service
was two mail coaches each way a week, for which
the government paid the stage company a sub-

150

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

sidy of $600,000 a year. The schedule time be-
tween San Francisco and St. Louis was twenty-
four days. The Butterfield route southward from
San Francisco was by the way of San Jose, Gil-
roy, Pacheco's Pass, Visalia and Fort Tejon to
Los Angeles. Eastward from Los Angeles it ran
by way of El Monte, Temecula and Warner's
ranch to Yuma. From there it followed about
the present route of the Southern Pacific Rail-
road to El Paso ; then northward to St. Louis,
branching at Fort Smith for Memphis. Los An-
geles never has had a mail service more prompt
and reliable. The Star, in lauding it, says : "The
arrival of the overland mail is as regular as the
index on the clock points to the hour, as true to
time as the dial to the sun." The best time that
it ever made between St. Louis and Los Angeles
was nineteen days. In 1861 the Confederates at
the eastern end and the Indians at the western
destroyed the stations and got away with some
of the stock. The coaches were transferred to
the Central Overland route via Omaha and Salt
Lake City to San Francisco. After the discontin-
uance of the Butterfield stage line Los Angeles
got her eastern mail by way of San Francisco,
and had the old irregularities and delays until the
railroad was completed in 1876. In 1882 the com-
pletion of the Southern Pacific Railroad gave
direct mail service east.

The first location of the post-office was on Los
Angeles street, near the plaza. In fifty years it
has wandered up and down foifr dififerent streets
from the plaza on the north to Eighth street on
the south. In June, 1893, it was moved into the
building erected for it on the corner of Main and
Winston streets and removed, March, 1901, to
the corner of Eighth and Spring, while the gov-
ernment building undergoes the slow process of
reconstruction.

The postmasters in the order of their appoint-
ment are as follows : J. Pugh, W. T. B. Sanford,
William B. Osburn, James S. Waite, J. D.
Woodworth, T. J. White, William G. Still, Fran-
cisco P. Ramirez, Russell Sackett, George J.
Clarke, H. K. W. Bent, Isaac R. Dunkelberger,
John W. Green, E. A. Preuss, J. W. Green, H.
V. Van Dusen, John R. Mathews and Lewis A.
Groff.

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS.

The only school of which there is any record
in the Spanish era of Los Angeles history is one
taught by Maximo Pefia, an invalid soldier, in
1817 and 1818. His yearly salary was $140. The
first school of the Mexican regime mentioned
in the archives was taught by Luciano Valdez,
beginning in 1827. His school was kept open
at varying intervals until the close of 183 1. On
account of "the lack of improvement in the ptib-

lic school of the pueblo," the ayuntamiento dis-
charged him and employed Vicente Morago, who
had the necessary qualifications for "civilizing
and morally training the children," * * * "al-
lowing him $15 monthly, the same as was paid the
retiring citizen, Luciano Valdez." February 12,
1833, Morago was appointed secretary of the
ayuntamiento at $30 per month and resigned his
position as teacher. Francisco Pontoja was ap-
pointed preceptor of the pueblo school. He
taught to January, 1834, when he demanded $20
per month ; the ayuntamiento, "seeing certain
negligence and indolence in his manner of ad-
vancing the children," discharged him and em-
ployed Cristoval Aquilar at $15 per month. He
taught a year, and then asked for an increase in
his salary. "After discussion it was decided that
his fitness for the position was insufficient." He
was discliarged. In 1835 Vicente Morago again
took charge of the school. As he was satisfied
with $15 per month his fitness was evident. In
1838 Don Yznacio Coronel taught the school.
He received $15, and the parents, according to
their means, paid certain amounts. His daughter,
Soledad, assisted him, and she was the first laily
teacher of Los Angeles.

January, 1844, Ensign Guadalupe Medina, an
officer of Micheltorena's army, opened a primary
school on the Lancastrian plan, wdiich attained
an attendance of 103 pupils and was the most
successful school of the RIexican era. The Lan-
castrian plan was an educational fad once popu-
lar, but dead for fifty years. The gist of the sys-
tem was the nearer the teacher was in education
to the level of the pupil, the more successful
would he be in imparting instruction. So the
preceptor taught the more advanced pupils ;
these taught the next lower grades, and so down
the scale to the lowest class. Lieut. Medina's
school was closed because the school-house was
needed for army headquarters. Los Angeles
was in the throes of a revolution. It could get
along without a school, but a political eruption
it must have about so often or die. Next year
the gringos came, and when school opened again
another nation was in charge of afYairs. In the
seventy years the pueblo was under Spanish and
Mexican rule it never built or owned a school-
house ; nor was there a public school buildhig
in California.

The first school under American rule in Cali-
fornia was taught by Dr. William B. Osburn in
Los Angeles during the year 1847. It was under
the auspices of Col. Stevenson, the military com-
mander of the southern district.

When the council was organized July 3, 1850,
Francisco Bustamente, employed by the ayun-
tamiento, was in charge of the public school at
$60 per month and an allowance of $20 for house

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

151

rent. He taught until near the close of the year,
when, on account of his large family, whom he
could not support out of his meager salary, he
asked for $ioo per month. The council dis-
charged him, but whether for unfitness or for too
much family, records do not state.

In July, 1850, Hugh Overns petitioned the
council to establish a school in which he would
teach the English, French and Spanish lan-
guages. The council allowed him from the pub-
lic funds $50 per month for the privilege of send-
ing to the school "six orphan boys or others
whose parents are poor." January 4, 185 1, Rev.
Henry Weeks and his wife opened a school,
Weeks teaching the boys and his wife the girls.
They received $150 a month and furnished their
own school rooms. The first school ordinance
was adopted by the council July 9, 185 1. It pro-
vided for an allowance of $50 per month to any
educational institution in the city teaching the
rudiments of English and Spanish languages.

August 13, 1852, by ordinance, ten cents on
the $100 of the municipal tax was set apart for
the support of public schools. July 25, 1853, an
ordinance was passed for the establishment and
government of the city's schools. It provided
for the appointment of three commissioners, who
shall constitute a board of education, the chair-
man of which shall be superintendent of schools.
J. Lancaster Brent, Lewis Granger and Stephen
C. Foster were appointed a board of education,
J. L. Brent becoming ex-officio school superin-
tendent.

May 20, 1854, an amended ordinance was
passed and Stephen C. Foster, then mayor, was
made the first superintendent, and three mem-
Ijers of the council constituted the board of edu-
cation. That year school house No. i, a brick
two-story building, was built on the northwest
comer of Spring and Second streets, where the
Bryson block now stands. School was opened
in it March 19, 1855, with William A. Wallace in
charge of the boys and Miss Louisa Hayes in
charge of the girls. Co-education was not al-
lowed in those days. School house No. 2 was
built in 1856. It was on Bath street, north of the
plaza, now North Main street. These two school

houses supplied the needs of the city lor ten
years.

During the '60s, on account of sectional ha-
treds growing out of the Civil war, the public
schools in Los Angeles were unpopular. They
were regarded as Yankee institutions and were
hated accordingly by the Confederate sympathiz-
ers, who made up a majority of the city's popula-
tion. In 1865-66 the number of school census
children in the city was 1,009. Of these only
331 were enrolled in the public schools during
the year. The average attendance in the pri-
vate schools was fifty per cent greater than in
the public schools. Twenty-one negro children
were enrolled in a separate school. The educa-
tion of these twenty-one little negroes was re-
garded as a menace to the future ascendancy of
the white race. Out of such mole hills does po-
litical bigotry contract impassable mountains.
The northern immigration that began to drift
into Los Angeles in the early '70s changed pub-
lic opinion in regard to the common schools.
The Los Angeles high school, the first in South-
ern California, was established in 1873. From
this onward the schools of the city have steadily
progressed. The city school superintendents, in
the order of their service, are as follows : J. Lan-
caster Brent, ex-officio; Stephen C. Foster, Dr.
William B. Osborn, Dr. John S. Griffin, J. Lan-
caster Brent, E. J. C. Kewen, Rev. W. E. Board-
man, A. F. Heinchman, G. L. Mix, Dr. R. F.
Flayes, Rev E. Birdsell, Joseph Huber, Sr. ; H.
D. Barrows, A. Glassell, Dr. T. FI. Rose, A. G.
Brown, Dr. W. T. Lucky, C. H. Kimball, Mrs.
C. B. Jones, J. M. Guinn, L. D. Smith, W. M.
Freisner, Leroy D. Brown, P. W. Search and
J. A. Foshay.

The ofifice of superintendent in earlier years
was filled by lawyers, doctors, ministers and
business men. It was not until 1869 that a pro-
fessional teacher was chosen superintendent ;
since then professional teachers have filled the
office.

The State Normal school building at Los An-
geles was completed in 1882, and the school
opened August 29, of that year. It is now next
to largest Normal School in tlie state.

152

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

CHAPTER XXVll.

THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES— Continued.

CRIME AND VIGILANCE COMMITTEES.

LOS ANGELES was a turbulent city in its
youth. During the Spanish and Mexican
eras of its history it was not the scene
of many capital crimes, but during Mexican
domination it became a storm center of political
revolutions. These rarely resulted in bloodshed,
and were more famous for noise than for physical
violence.

The first vigilance committee on the Pacific
coast of North America had its origin in Los
Angeles in 1836, twenty years before the world-
famous vigilance committee of 1856 was formed
at San Francisco. Its story briefly told runs
thus : The wife of Domingo Feliz, part owner
of the Los Feliz rancho, who bore the poetical
name of Maria del Rosario Villa, became infat-
uated with a handsome Init disreputable Sonoran
vaquero, Gervacio Alispaz by name. She de-
serted her husband and lived with Alispaz as his
mistress at San Gabriel. Feliz, failing to reclaim
his erring wife, sought the aid of the authorities.
A reconciliation was effected, ami the husljand
and wife started on horseback for the rancho.
On their way they met Alispaz. An altercation
occurred and Feliz was stabbed to death by his
wife's paramour. The body was dragged into a
ravine and covered with brush and leaves. Next
day the body was found and the guilty pair ar-
rested. The people were filled with horror and
indignation, and there were threats of summary
vengeance, but better counsel prevailed. It was
the beginning of holy week, and all efforts to
bring them to punishment were deferred until
after Easter. Monday morning, April 7, a large
number of citizens assembled at the house of
Juan Tcmi)lc. An organization was effected.
Victor I'rudon, a native of Breton, France, but
a naturalized citizen of California, was made
president, M^muel Arzaga, secretary, and Fran-
cisco Arunjo, a retired army ofificer, commander
of the vigilantes. Fifty-five persons were en-
rolled in a vigilance committee. The organiza-
tion was named Junta Defensora dc La Seguri-
dad Publico — Ihiited Defenders of the Public
Safety. An address to the people and the au-
thorities was formulated, setting forth the ne-
cessity of the organization and demanding the
immediate execution of the assassins. The ayun-

taniicnto, alarmed at tlie threatening attitude of
the people, assembled in extraordinary session.
An attempt was made to enroll the militia to put
down the uprising, but it was given up. A de-
mand was made on the authorities for Alispaz
and the woman. This was refused. The mem-
bers of the Junta Defensora, all armed, marched
in a body to the jail. The guard refused to give
up the keys. They were secured by force and
Gervacio Alispaz taken out and shot to death.
-A demand was then made for the key to the
apartment (in a private house) where the woman
was incarcerated. The alcalde refused to give it
up. The key was secured. The wretched Maria
was taken to the place of execution on a carreta
and shot. The bodies of the guilty pair were
brought back to the jail and the following com-
munication sent to the alcalde, Manuel Requena :

"Junta of the Defenders of the Public Safety —
To the b'irst Constitutional Alcalde:
The dead bodies of Gervacio Alispaz and Ma-
ria del Rosario Villa are at your disposal. W'c
also forward you the jail keys that you may de-
liver them to whomsoever is on guard. In case
you are in need of men to serve as guards we are
at your disposal.

God and Liberty. Angeles, .Xpril 7, 1836.
Victor Prudon, President.
Manuel Arzaga, Secretary.

A few days later the Junta Defensora de La
Seguridad Publico disbanded, and so ended the
only instance in the seventy-five vears of Span-
ish and Mexican rule in California of the people
by popular tribunal taking the administration of
justice out of the hands of the legally constituted
aiUhoritics.

\\'\i\\ the discovery of gold in California began
the era of crime. In the decade following that
event, to paraphrase one of the.Junta Defensora's
nieta]ihors, "the dike of legal restraint was swept
away by a torrent of atrocious infamy." Gold al-
lured to California the law-defying as well as the
law-abiding of many countries. They came from
Europe, from South America and from Mexico.
From Australia and Tasmania came the escajie 1
convict and the lickef-of-leave man; from .Asia
came tlio "hcnlhen Cliincr:" and the I'nited
States usually furnished the heavy villain in all

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

153

the tragedies. These conglomerate elements of
society found the Land of Gold practically with-
out law and the vicious among them were not
long in making it a land without order.

The American element among the gold seek-
ers soon adjusted a form of government to suit
the exigencies of the times and the people. There
may have been too much lynching, too much
vigilance conmiittee in it, and too little respect
for lawfully constituted authorities, but it was
effective in controlling the criminal element and
was suited to the social condition existing. Los
Angeles was far removed from the gold fields,
but from some cause, or rather from several
causes, it furnished more villains, vigilance com-
mittees and lynchings than any other city in the
state. San Francisco in its two famous commit-
tees, that of 185 1 and that of 1856, executed ten
men and then gave up the business to the legal
authorities. Los Angeles city and county be-
tween 1851 and 1871 hanged thirty-five, con-
demned by popular tribunal and executed by vig-
ilantes. From 1850, for at least two decades the
city was seldom or never without some form
of a people's tribunal of last resort. The gal-
lows tree in early times stood on Fort Hill. The
first execution there was in 1852, when three na-
tive Californians were hanged for the murder
of two young cattle buyers on the banks of the
San Gabriel river, December 4, 1852; threemore
were hanged, two for complicity in the murder
of Gen. Bean, and one for stabbing his friend to
death on some slight provocation. One of the
sus])ects for the murder of Bean, a poor cobbler
by the name of Sandoval, died declaring his
innocence. Years afterwards one of the real
murderers on his death bed confessed that the
cobbler was innocent.

January T2, 1855, David Brown, for the mur-
der of his companion, Clifford, was taken from
the jail and hanged to the gateway of a corral
on .Spring street opposite the prison. During
1855 and 1856 lawlessness increased. There ivas
an organized band of about one hundred Mexi-
cans who patroled the highways, robbing and
murdering. On the night of January 22, 1857,
Sheriff James R. Barton, with a posse consisting
of William H. Little, Charles K. Baker, Charles
F. Daley, Alfred Hardy and Franl- Alexander,
left Los Angeles in pursuit of this banditti, who
under their leaders, Pancho Daniel and Juan
Flores, had been robbing and committing out-
rages in the neighborhood of San Juan Capis-
trano. On the road near San Juan they encoun-
tered a detachment of the bandits. A short,
sharp engagement took place. Barton, Baker,
Little and Daley were killed. Hardy and Al-
exander escaped by the fiectness of their horses.
This tragedy aroused the people to a determi-

nation to exterminate the murderous gang. Sev-
eral military companies were organized. The
country was scoured, suspicious characters ar-
rested and known criminals hanged without
judge, jury or the benefit of a priest. Flores
was hanged on Fort Hill and Pancho Daniel
eighteen months later was found one morning
hanging to a beam across the gate of the jail
yard. The vigilantes, exasperated at the law's
delays, hanged him. Tiburcio Vasquez's gang-
were the last banditti to terrorize the southern
counties. After committing a scries of crimes,
the leader was captured in a canon of the Calui-
enga mountains May 15, 1874, by a sheriff's
posse under Deputy Sheriff Albert Johnson.
Vasquez was hanged March 19, 1S75, at San
Jose for murder committed in Santa Clara
County. His band was broken up and disap-
peared from the county.

October 24, 1871, occurred one of the most
disgraceful afTairs that ever occurred in Los An-
geles. It is known as the Chinese massacre. It
grew out of one of those interminable feuds
between rival tongs or companies of highbinders
over the possession of a woman. In attempting
to quell the disturbance, Robert Thompson was
shot and killed by a bullet fired through the
door of a Chinese house. A mob soon gathered
and attacked the Chinese dens, and dragging
frjrth the wretched occupants, hanged nineteen of
them to wagon boxes, awnings and beams of a
corral gate. The mob plundered the Chinese
quarters, stealing everything of value they could
lay their hands on. The rioting had begun about
dark and continued until 9 r^o in the evening,
when the law-abiding citizens, under the lead of
Henry T. Hazard, R. M. Widney, IT. C. .'Vustin,
Sheriff Burns and others, had gathered in suffi-
cient force to put a stop to the mob's wild work.
Finding determined opposition, the murderous
miscreants quickly dispersed. Of the nineteen
Chinamen hanged, shot or dragged to death,
only one. Ah Clioy, was implicated in the high-
binder war that gave the mob an excuse for rob-
l)cry and pillage. One hundred and fifty indict-
ments were found by the grand jury against per-
sons implicated in the riot. Only six were con-
victed and these after serving a short time in
the state's prison were released on a tech-
nicality.

The last execution by a vigilance conunittee
in Los .'\ngelcs occurred on the morning of De-
cember 17. 1870. The victim was Michael Lach-
cnias, a French desperado, who murdered his
neighbor, Jacob Bell, an inoffensive little man.
without provocation. Laclienias, who had the
reputation of having killed five or six men, af-
ter shooting Bell rode in from his ranch south of
town boasting of his deed. He gave himself up

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

and was placed in jail. A vigilance committee,
three hundred strong, was formed and, march-
ing to the jail in broad daylight, took Lachenias
out, then proceeded to Tomlinson's corral on the
corner of Temple and New High streets (where
the Law Building now stands), and hanged him
to the beam over the gate. During the Chinese
massacre five Chinamen were hanged to the
same beam. No attempt was made to prosecute
the vigilantes that executed Lachenias.

PIONEER NEWSPAPERS.

In our American colonization of the Great
West the newspaper has kept pace with immigra-
tion. It was not so in Spainsh colonization ; in it
the newspaper came late if it came at all. There
were no newspapers published in California dur-
ing the Spanish and Mexican eras.

Seventy years elapsed between the founding
of Los Angeles and the founding of its first
newspaper. October i6, 1850, Theodore Fos-
ter petitioned the city council "for a lot situated
at the northerly corner of the jail for the pur-
pose of erecting thereon a house to be used as
a printing establishment." The council, "taking
in consideration the advantages which a print-
ing house offers to the advancement of public
enlightenment, resolved for this once only that a
lot from amongst those that are marked on the
city map be given to Mr. Theodore Foster for
the purpose of establishing thereon a printing-
house, and the donation be made in his favor
because he is the first to inaugurate this public
benefit." Foster selected a lot "back of John-
son's fronting on the corral." The corral or zanja
madre (mother ditch) ran along Los Angeles
street. Foster's lot, "forty varas each way,"
granted him by the council, was directly in the
rear of where the St. Charles now stands. On
this lot Foster built a two-story building. The
lower story was used for a printing office and the
upper for a living room for the proprietors and
compositors.

The first number of the pioneer paper was
issued May 17, 185 1. It was named La Estrella
dc Los Angeles — the Star of Los Angeles, or the
Los Angeles Star. It was a four-page, five-col-
umn paper; size of page, 12x18 inches. Two of
its pages were printed in English and two in
Spanish. The subscription price was $10 a year,
payable in advance. Advertisements were in-
serted at the rate of $2 per square for the first
insertion and $1 for each subsequent insertion.
The publishers were John A. Lewis and John
McElroy. Foster had transferred his interest
in the printing house before the issue of the pa-
per. In September, 1853, he committed suicide
by drowning himself in the Fresno river.

Between 1851 and 1856 the Star had a number

of different proprietors and publisJK-rs. It was
not a very profitable investment, so it was passed
along from one to another, each proprietor imag-
ining that he knew how to run a paper to make
it pay. In June, 1856, Henry Hamilton bought
it. He continued its publication until October
12, 1864, when, having fallen under the ban of
the Federal government for his outspoken sym-
pathy with the Southern Confederacy, he was
forced to discontinue its publication, and the Star
set for a time. May 16, 1868, he resumed its
publication. In 1870 the Daily Star was issued
by Hamilton & Barter, liarter retired from
the firm in a short time and Hamilton con-
tinued its publication. Ben. C. Truman leased it
in 1S73, and continued its publication until, July,
1877, Hamilton sold the paper to Paynter & Co.
It passed from one publisher to another until
finally the sheriff attached the plant for debt in
the latter part of 1879, ''"'^' t^'^^ ■^''"' ^^ Los An-
geles ceased to shine.

The second paper founded in Los Angeles was
the Southern Californian. The first issue ap-
peared Jul) JO, 1S54, L". N. Richards & Co., pub-
lishers ; William Butts, editor. November 2,
1854, William Butts and John O. Wheeler suc-
ceeded Richards & Co. in the proprietorship. The
paper was ably conducted and large in size. It
died in January, 1856, from insufficient support.

El Clomor Publico was the first Spanish paper
published in Los Angeles. The first issue ap-
peared June 8, 1855; its last December 31, 1859.
Francisco P. Ramirez was the editor and proprie-
tor. The Southern Vineyard was founded by
Col. J. J. Warner March 20, 1858. It was at first
a weekly and later on a semi-weekly. It ceased
to exist June 8, i860.

The Los Angeles News was established by C.
R. Conway and Alonzo Waite, January 18, i860.
It was at first a semi-weekly ; then changed to
a tri-wcekly and back again to a semi-weekly.
January i, 1869, tinder the management of King
& Oflfutt it appeared as the Los Angeles Daily
A'C7Vs. It was the first daily paper published in
Los Angeles. Subscription price was $12 a year,
six numbers a week. Its publication ceased in

1873-

1 hesc enumerated above were pioneers in the
field of journalism. Of the modern papers (those
that have ai)pcarcd since i860) their nunil)er is
legion and the journalistic graveyard of unfell
wants is well filled with their remains. I have not
space even lo cnumeralc thcni. The oldest paper
now published in Los Angeles is the E':'eiiing
Express. It was established March 27, 1871.

ANNALS OF THE CITV's GROWTH AND PROGRESS.

During the first decade (1850 to iS6o~) of
.•\niericnn government of the city it made a

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

155

steady growth. Wood and brick to a consider-
able extent had supplanted adobe in building.
The first brick were made in 1S52 by Jesse
Hunter, and the first brick building erected in
the city was built on the northwest corner of
Main and Third streets.

The population of the city in 1850 was 1,610;
in i860, 4.399. The growth of the city has been
irregular, by fits and starts, or booms, as they
are now called. In 1849 and 1850 the city had
one of its spasms of expansion that astonished
the old-timers. Houses already framed for put-
ting together were shipped around the Horn
from Boston and New York and even from Lon-
don. Some of these were sheet-iron buildings.
Again in 1858 and 1859 the city had another
building boom. The Arcadia block, on the corner
of Arcadia and Los Angeles streets, was built
by Don Abel Stearns. It is said to have cost
$80,000. The Angeleiios pointed to it with
pride and claimed that it was the finest business
block south of San Francisco. In 1859 Juan
Temple erected for a city market the building
that was afterward used for a court house. The
upper story was designed for and used several
years as a theater. It cost $30,000. Ten years
later it was sold at $25,000 to the county for a
court house. During the year 1859, thirty-one
brick buildings and a considerable number of
wooden ones were built in the city. It was the
biggest building boom in the history of the city
up to that time. In January, 1858, the first train
of pack camels appeared in Los Angeles. For
a year or more afterwards it was no unconnnon
sight to see a caravan of these hump-backed
burden-bearers solemnly wending their way
single file through the city. In 1857, through
the efforts of JciTerson IDavis, then secretary
of war, seventy-five camels were imported fnim
Egypt and Arabia to Texas for army service in
the arid plains of the southwest. One detach-
ment from the main body was used in packing
supplies from Los Angeles to Fort Tej(Mi ;
others were used in transporting military sup-
plies to the forts in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico
and Texas. But the experiment proved a fail-
ure. The perversity of the camel and the im-
possibility of transforming an American mule
whacker into an Arabian camel driver destroyed
all hopes of utilizing the camel in America, and
these "ships of the desert" were left finally to
drift in their native element at will. It is said that
some of the survivors of the experiment or their
descendants are still running loose in the deserts
of Arizona and Northern Alcxico.

In i860 the telegraph line between San Fran-
cisco and Los Angeles was completed and the
first message over the wires was sent by Henry
Melius, the mayor of Los Angeles, at 10 o'clock

P. M., October 8, to H. F. Teschemacher, presi-
dent of the board of supervisors of San Fran-
cisco. The Salt Lake trade, begun in 1855, had
grown to considerable proportions. In one
month as high as sixty wagons had been loaded
in Los Angeles for Salt Lake. May 25, 1861,
a grand Union demonstration was held in the
city. The Civil war had split the citizens into
two hostile factions; the larger number were
Confederate sympathizers. The Union men,
taking advantage of the presence of a company
of the First United States Dragoons, got up a
grand procession and marched around the plaza,
down Main and up Spring to the court house,
where the national colors were unfurled. The
United States military band struck up the "Star-
Spangled Banner," thirty-four guns were fired,
one for each state in the Union, and patriotic
speeches were made by Gen. Drown, Major
Carlton and Capt. (afterwards Gen.) W. S. Han-
cock.

January, 1862, was noted for the greatest flood
in the history of California. It began raining
December 24, 1861, and kept it up almost with-
out cessation for a month. New Year's day the
valleys were like inland seas and all communica-
tion with the city from the south and east was
cut of?. The Arroyo Seco brought down im-
mense rafts of driftwood, but as there were no
bridges then across the river these did but little
harm. They supplied the poor people of the
city with firewood. During the early part of
1862 there were about 4,000 troops at Wilming-
ton en route for Arizona and New Mexico. One
regiment was stationed at Camp Latham on the
La Ballona rancho. This camp was broken up
in tb.e summer and the troops removed to Wil-
mington.

The year 1863 was one of disasters. Sniall]iox
was raging among the Mexicans and Indians
and they were dying so fast that it was difficult
to find persons to bury them. The great drouth
had set in and cattle on the overstocked ranges
were dying by droves. There was a feud be-
tween the Unionist and secessionist so bitter
that a body of troops had to be stationed in the
city to protect the Unionists, who were in the
minority. Times were hard and money almost
an unknown quantity. The property of several
of the richest men in the city was advertised for
sale on account of delinquent taxes. No assess-
ment for citv taxes was made for the fiscal vear
of 1863-64. '

The year 1864 was a cominnati.m of the evil
days of 1863. The drouth continued and many
of the cattle carried over from the previous year
died before grass grew. The secession element
was still rampant and a number of arrests were
made by the government.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

In 1S65 the war was over and those on both
sides who hail fought valiantly with their tongues
sheathed their weapons and cried peace. April
19, public obsequies were held in respect to the
memory of President Lincoln. Rev. Elias Bird-
sell delivered the funeral oration. The 4th of
July was celebrated for the first time since the
beginning of the war. The church of the First
Protestant Society, the erection of which had
been begun in 1859, under the ministry of Rev.
William E. Boardman, a Presbyterian minister,
was this year turned over to the Episcopalians in
an unfinished condition. It was completed and oc-
cupied by Rev. Elias Birdsell, an Episcopal min-
ister. It was advertised for sale by the sheriff
in 1864, but nobody wanted a church, and so it
was not sold. It stood on the southwest corner
of Temple and New High streets, where the
steps leading up to the court house now are. It
was the pioneer Protestant church of the city.

The year 1868, like that of 1862, was ushered
in by a great flood, which left a lasting impress
on the physical contour of the county. It formed
a new river, or rather an additional channel for
the San Gabriel river. Several thousand acres of
valuable land were washed away by the San Ga-
briel river cutting a new channel to the sea, from
three to five miles southeast of the old river.
The damage by loss of land was more than offset
by the increased facilities for irrigation afforded
by having two rivers instead of one. The flood
in the Los .Angeles river swept away the dam
of the water-works and cut off the city"s water
supply, leaving the inhabitants very much in
the condition of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner,
"Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to
drink." The disastrous years of 1863 and 1864
had stopped all growth and improvement in the
city. In 1868 the city began to take on a new
growth. The subdivision of some of the large
ranchos and their sale in small tracts brought in
home-seekers. In the city, old-timers who had
been holding on for years to town property took
the first opportunity to imload on the new-
comers; and lots that to-day are valued in the
hundred thousands each changed hands in 1868
with the thousands left off.

.\ mimber of new enterprises were inaugurateil
this year. \\'ork was begun on the Los Angeles
& San Pedro Railroad. The City Water Com-
]iany was organized and water pijied in iron pijies
to the houses. The first bank was organized
by Alvinza Hay ward and John G. Downey, capi-
tal $100,000. The new Ma.sonic Hall on Spring
street was dedicated September 29th. The city
was lighted with gas.

In 1869 immigration was coming by boatloads.
Real estate was advancing in value rapidly.
There was a great demand for houses and new

buildings were springing up all over the city.
The Los .\ngeles <& San Pedro Railroad was
completed October 26 and then the old stage
coaches that for nearly two decades had raced
and rattled over the road between city and port
were relegated to obscurity.

In February, 1870, the houses in the business
l)ortion of the city were numbered systematically
for the first time. The first city directory was
compiled this year, but was not published until
1871. There were no places where liquor was
retailed. The Federal census gave the popula-
tion of the city 5,614, which was an increase of
1,215 '" t^" years. The assessed value of prop-
erty in the city was $2,108,061.

The railroad bond issue was the live question
of 1872. The Southern Pacific Railroad Com-
pany had made an offer to build twenty-five
miles north and twenty-five east from Los An-
geles city of its trans-continental line that it was
building up the San Joaquin valley. The Texas
Pacific met this with an offer to build frotii San
Diego (the prospective terminus ol its trans-
continental line) a railroad up the coast to Los
Angeles, giving the county si.xty miles of rail-
road. The Southern Pacific countered this offer
by agreeing to build, in addition to the fifty
miles of its previous offer, a branch to Anaheim,
making in all seventy-seven miles. The recom-
pense for this liberality on the part of the roads
was that the people should vote bonds equal to
five per cent of the total taxable property of the
county. The bond question stirred up the peo-
ple as no previous issue had done since the Civil
war. The contest was a triangular one. South-
ern Pacific, Texas Pacific or no railroad. Each
company had its agents and advocates abroad
enlightening the people on the superior merits
of its individual offer, while "Taxpaxer" and
"Pro Bono Publico," through the newsi^apers,
bewailed the waste of the people's money and
bemoaned the increase of taxes. .\t the election.
November 5, the Southern Pacific won.

The city reached the high tide of its prosperity
tUiring the '70s in 1874. Building was active. It
was estimated that over $300,000 was expended
in the erection of business houses and fully that
amount in residences. The Spring and Sixth
street horse railroad, the fir.st street car line in
the city, was completed this year.

The year 1875 was one of disasters. The great
financial panic of 1873, ])resaged by that mone-
tary cyclone, "Black Friday in Wall street." had
no innnediate effect upon business in California.
The years 1873 and 1874 were among the most
prosperous in our hi.-tory. The panic reached
California in September, 1875, begimiing with
the suspension of the Bank of Cali'ornia in San
Francisco and the tragic death of its president,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

157

William C. Ralston. In a few days nearly every
bank in California closed its doors. The two in
Los Angeles — the Temple & Workman and
Hellman's — closed. The latter resumed busi-
ness in a few days. The former made an at-
tempt to stem the current of its financial diffi-
culties, failed, and went down forever, carrying
with it the fortune of many an unfortunate de-
positor. One of the bankers, William Work-
man, an old and highly respected pioneer, from
brooding over the failure, went insane and com-
mitted suicide. Temple died a few years later,
a poor man.

The hard times following the bank failures
were intensified by the drought of 1877, which
brought disaster to the sheep industry of South-
ern California. There was no business reaction
during the remainder of the decade. The Fed-
eral census of 1880 gave the city's population at
11,183, an increase of almost one hundred per
cent in ten years. The greater part of the gain
was made in the first half of the decade. Rail-
road connection with San Francisco and Sacra-
mento was made in September, 1876, but it
opened up no new market for Los Angeles.
Times continued hard and money close. The
adoption of the new constitution of the state in
1879 did not improve matters. The capitalists
were afraid of some of its radical innovations.

In 1881 times began to improve. The rail-
road had penetrated into the mining regions of
Arizona and opened up a market for the prod-
ucts of Southern California. Its completion next
year gave Los Angeles direct connection with
the east and brought in eastern investors. Dur-
ing 1883 and 1884 the city grew rapidly. In
JMay, 1883, the school lot on the northwest cor-
ner of Spring and Second streets was sold for
$31,000; two years before it was valued at
$12,000. The board of education purchased
from part of the proceeds of that sale the present
site of the Spring street school, near Si.xth street,
for $12,500. The school building was erected
in 1884, at a cost of about $40,000. In the spring
of 1886 the Atlantic & Pacific and its connecting
roads — the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and
Southern California — precipitated a rate war
with the Southern Pacific. Round-trip tickets
from Missouri river points to Los Angeles were
sold as low as $15. Thousands of eastern peo-
ple, taking advantage of the low rates, visited
Southern California.

The country was looking its loveliest. East-
ern people, shivering in the "bleak winds of
March" when they left their homes, in three or
four days were in a land where the plains and
hills were green with verdure, flowers bloom-
ing and the fragrance of orange bloom perfuming
the air. The result was that manv of the tourists

invested in land and lots and others went home
to sell their possessions and return to the prom-
ised and promising land. Real-estate values
went up rapidly in 1886, but in 1887 came that
event that marks the turning point in the city's
history — the Boom.

In the historical sketch of Los Angeles
county some of the extravagant as well as the
ludicrous features of the boom are portrayed.
Speculation in city property was mostly legiti-
mate, but values were inflated to the burstmg
point. After a lapse of fifteen years and a popu-
lation three times as great as that of 1887, very
little of the property that changed hands during
the boom, outside of that on three business
streets, could be sold to-day at the figures at
which it changed hands during the height of the
boom ; and many of the outlying lots in the east-
ern part of the city could not be disposed of for
the amount of the commission the real-estate
agent received for making the sale fifteen years
ago.

In 1889 work was begun on the cable railway
system. A line was extended on Broadway to
Seventh and west on Seventh to West Lake
Park. Another line extended from Seventh on
Grand avenue to Jefiferson street. From First
and Spring a line ran on East First to Boyle
Heights and from the same point another ran on
North Spring, Upper Main and Downey avenue
to East Los Angeles. A million and a half dol-
lars were expended in tracks, power houses and
machinery. All but the tracks were discarded a
few years later, when electricity was substituted
for steam and the trolley for the cable. The
Los Angeles electric railway system was begun
in 1892. The first line constructed was that on
West Second, Olive, First and other streets to
Westlake Park. The traction system was begun
in 1895.

In February, 1892, Messrs. Doheny and Con-
non, prospecting for petroleum, dug two wells
with pick and shovel on West State street, in the
resident portion of the city. .\t the depth of
150 feet oil was found. From this small begin-
ning a profitable industry has grown up. The oil
belt extends diagonally across the northwestern
part of the city. The total number of wells
drilled within the city limits up to June, 1900,
was 1,300, and the yield of these from the begin-
ning of the oil development was estimated at
7,000,000 barrels, worth in round numbers about
.$6,000,000.

In the spring of 1900 the oil industry took on
.some of the wild-cat characteristics of the great
real-estate boom. For a time it was no uncom-
mon feat to incorporate half a dozen oil com-
panies in a day. The capital of some of these ran
u]) into the millions. Oil stocks could be bought

158

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

all the way from one cent up; and later on, when
the excitement began to subside, in bunches
of five for a cent. Thousands of dollars were
invested in oil slock, not wild-cat, from which
there will be no return. Many an investor to-day
has a nicely lithographed certificate of oil stock
that has cost hininiore than would an oil paint-
ing bv one of the <ild masters. At several elec-

tions called at dififerent times between 1896 and
1899 the city area was increased by annexations
on the southw'est and northeast from twenty-
seven to thirty-seven square miles. The popu-
lation of the city, according to the census of
1900, was 102,298. The assessed value of city
property was $67,576,047.

CHAPTER XXVlll.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY.

ORIGIN OF THE N.\ME.

WHEN Cabrillo explored the Santa Bar-
bara channel in 1542 he named only a
few of the prominent points of the
main land and the islands that mark the chan-
nel; but few of the names he gave have been
retained.

Sixty years later Sebastian Viscaino's ships
sailed through the channel. Padre de La As-
cension, one of the three Carmelite friars ac-
companying the expedition, December 4, 1602,
writing a letter descriptive of the mainland
and the islands of the channel, headed it Santa
Barbara, in honor of Santa Barbara, virgin and
martyr, whose day in the Catholic calendar is
December 4.

Santa Barbara was born in Nicomedia, Asia
Minor, and suffered martyrdom, December 4,
A. D. 218, during the persecution of the Chris-
tians under the Emperor Maximum. She is said
to have been decapitated by her father, a Roman
officer serving under the Emperor. One hun-
dred and sixty-seven years after Viscaino's ex-
plorations. Portala's expedition passed up the
coast and through the valley where the city of
Santa Barbara now stands. Through all these
years the channel still retained the name given
it by Padre de La .Ascension, although so far as
we know no ship's keel had cut its waters since
\'iscaino's time.

When the presidio was founded. April 21,
1782, the name of the fort, and of the mission
that was to be, had already been determined. To
Padre de La .Xscension belongs the honor of
naming the channel from which caiue the name
of the presidio, the mission and the pueblo that
grew up around these. When the county was
formed naturally it took the name so long
borne by the i)ucblo and the district over which
it exercised jurisdiction.

0Rr,.\NIZ.\TI0N OK Till-: COUNTY.

Santa Barbara is one of the original twenty-
seven counties into which the state, or rather

the territory, of California (for it had not yet
been admitted as a state of the Union) was di-
vided by an act of the legislature. Approved
February 18, 1850.

Section 4 of that act created the county of
Santa Barbara. The boundaries as given in the
act are as follows: "Beginning on the sea coast
at the mouth of the creek called Santa Maria,
and running up the middle of said creek to its
source; thence due northeast to the summit of
the Coast Range, the farm of Santa Maria fall-
ing within Santa Barbara county; thence fol-
lowing the summit of the Coast Range to the
northwest corner of Los Angeles county; thence
along the northwest boundary of said county
to the ocean and three English miles therein;
and thence in a northerly direction parallel with
the coast to a point due west of the mouth of
Santa Maria creek; thencedue east to the mouth
of said creek, which was the place of beginning;
including the islands of Santa Barbara, San
Nicolas, San Miguel. Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz
and others in the same vicinity. The seat of
justice shall be at Santa Barbara." By an act
of the legislature of 1851-52 the boundaries of
the county were more clearly defined and some
slight changes made in the lines.

The legislature passed acts creating county
organizations and providing for the election of
county officers. The old system of numicipal
government that had been in force under Span-
ish and Mexican rule and under the .\iuerican
rule from the time of the conquest w.as swept out
of existence. In place of ayuntamientos and
courts of first, second and third instance, and of
offices of alcaldes, prefects, sub-prefects, regi-
dores and sindicos were substituted district
courts, courts of sessions, county courts, justices
of the peace, common councils, mayors, sheriffs,
district attorneys, treasurers, assessors, record-
ers, surveyors, coroners and constables. To the
natives who had been reared under the simple
forms of early years the .American system of
government was complicated and confusing. .An
election for countv officers was ordered held

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

throughout the state on the first JMonday o'i
April, 1850; and the machinery of county gov-
ernment was put into operation as speedily as
possible. The transition from the old form to
the new took place in Santa Barbara in Au-
gust.

Henry A. Tefft was appointed judge of the
second judicial district, which consisted of the
counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
John ]\L Huddars acted as clerk of the court.
.\t the April election Pablo de la Guerra, who
had represented the Santa Barbara district in
the constitutional convention, was chosen state
senator and J. j\L Covarrubias and Henry S.
Carnes the first assemblymen.

Joaquin Carriflo was the first county judge
and by virtue of his office presiding justice of
the court of sessions. This court consisted of the
county judge and two justices of the peace, who
acted as associate justices. Besides its judicial
duties it also fulfilled the functions of county
government now performed by boards of super-
visors. The first meeting of the court of ses-
sions was held October 21. 1850, and its first
recorded act was the ordering of a county seal.
The design of the seal is described as follows:
"Around the margin the words, county court of
Santa Barbara county, with the following device
in the center: A female figure holding in her
right hand a balance and in her left a rod of
justice; above, a figure of a rising sun; below,
CAL. The associate justices at the first meet-
ing of the court of sessions were Samuel Barney
and William A. Streeter.

Jose A. Rodriguez, the first sheriff of the
county, was killed in the fall of 1850 on the
present site of the oil wells of Summerland
while leading a party in pursuit of the murderers
of the Reed family at San Miguel Mission. Ro-
driguez was recklessly brave. The murderers
had been surrounded. The members of the
sherifif's posse hesitated to close in on them.
Rodriguez, to inspire his men with courage,
rushed in upon the murderers and, seizing one
of them, pulled him from his horse. In the
scuffle the fellow shot and killed the sheriff. One
of the desperadoes, endeavoring to escape, swam
out to sea and was drowned. Three of them,
Lynch, Raymond and Quin, were captured,
taken to Santa Barbara and shot.

The first assessment of property was made
by Lewis T. Burton, county assessor. The total
value of all property in the county, real and
personal, was placed at $992,676. Cattle were
assessed at $8 per head, sheep at $3 per head
and land at twenty-five cents per acre. The
assessment list of Don Jose de la Guerra y No-
riega is a good illustration of how the lands
of the county had been monopolized by a

few men. Noriega owned the Cone jo ran-
cho, which contained 53.880 acres; the Simi,
containing loS.ooo acres ; Las Pasas, containing
26,640 acres ; San Julian, 20,000 ; the Salsipu-
edes, 35,200 acres; a total of 243,120 acres; the
assessed value of which was about $60,000.

It took the new officers some time to become
acquainted with the duties of the several offices.
There was a disposition to mix American and
]Mexican law. In the county as in the city gov-
ernment there were frequent resignations, and
the officers changed from one official position
to another. County officers held city offices and
vice versa, sometimes by appointment and
sometimes by election. Joaquin Carrillo. in
1852, was county judge and mayor of Santa
Barbara city at the same time. J. W. Burroughs
breaks the record as champion officeholder. He
was elected sheriff in 1857; appointed recorder
September 3, 185 1 ; justice of the peace Septem-
ber 16, 1857; acted as county clerk January 23,
1852, and was appointed treasurer April 14,
1852. January 29, 1851, he had been elected
a member of the common council. He held six
distinct offices within a little more than a year.

The frequent recurrence of the same family
name in the lists of city and county officials
might give rise to the charge of nepotism or a
family political ring. The de la Guerras and the
Carrillos were ruling families in Santa Barbara
before the conquest and they continued to be
for some time after. The first mayor of the city
was a de la Guerra (Francisco). The first state
senator was also a de la Guerra (Pablo). Don
Pablo, although a bitter opponent to the Amer-
icans during the war, after the conquest be-
came thoroughly Americanized. He held many
offices. He was a member of the constitutional
convention, state senator, acting lieutenant-gov-
ernor, mayor of Santa Barbara, councilman, su-
pervisor and district judge. At a meeting of
the court of sessions December 6, 1852, the
judges of the court were Joaquin Carrillo, coun-
ty judge: Pedro Carrillo and Jose Carrillo, asso-
ciate justices.

In earlv davs politics had very little to do
with the selection of county officers. Fitness
and family (particularly family) were the chief
oualifications. It was urged against Don Pablo
de la Guerra when he was a candidate for dis-
trict judge that in a great many cases which
would come before him if elected he would be
barred from sitting as judge because about half
of the population of Santa Barbara county was
related to him bv blood or marriage. In 1852
District Judge Henry A. Tefft was drowned at
Port San Luis while attempting to land from
the steamer to hold court at San Ltiis Obispo.
Joaquin Carrillo was elected district judge U>

160

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

fill the vacancy. He held office by appointment
and election fourteen years. He did not under-
stand English and all the business of the court
was conducted in the Spanish language. Although
not a lawyer his decisions were seldom over-
ruled by the higher courts. Charles Fernakl was
appointed county judge to fill the vacancy
caused by the promotion of Joaquin Carrillo.
The first county building, a jail, was completed
December i. 1853. In 1853 the county was di-
vided into three townships of about equal area.
Township No. i, elections held at San Buenaven-
tura; No. 2 at Santa Barbara, and No. 3 at
Santa Ynez. By act of the legislature of 1852-3
a board of supervisors was created for each
county. This relieved the court of sessions of
the legislative part of its duties. The first board
of supervisors of Santa Barbara consisted of
Pablo de la Guerra, Fernando Pico and Ramon
Malo.

Up to 1856 Santa Barbara was solidly Demo-
cratic in politics. The Whig party seems not
to have gained a foothold. In local politics, fam-
ily, as I have said before, was one of the chief
requisites. So one-sided was the county politi-
cally that at the state election of 1855 the super-
visors in canvassing the vote recorded only the
Democratic. Tlie opposition vote seems not to
have risen to the dignity of scattering.

November 27, 1855, the supervisorspurchased
the house of John Kays for a court house, pay-
ing for it and the grounds $6,000. The county
was now equipped with a court house and jail.
The prisoners, who were mostly Indians, were
not doomed to solitary confinement. Tlie jail
was not capacious enough to hold them. They
were given employment outside. We find among
the proceedings of the board of supervisors in
1856 an order to the sheriff to sell the adobes
made by the prisoners at the county jail at not
less than $2. 50 per hundred.

CRIME AND CRIMINALS.

During the early '50s the coast counties were
the scenes of many deeds of violence. The
.Argonauts who came to the state by the south-
ern routes and the Sonorian migration traveled
the coast road on their way to the mines. The
cattle buyers coming south to the cow coun-
ties to buy stock came by this route. The long
stretches of unsettled country in Santa Bar-
bara and San Luis Obispo counties gave the
banditti who infested the trail an opportunity
to rob and nnirdcr with but little fear of detec-
tion.

The Scjjomon Pico l^and of outlaws was the
first organized gang that terrorized the coast
counties. Their victims were mostly cattle buy-
ers. This gang was finally hunted down and

most of them died "with their boots on." Sonic
of the remnants of this gang that escaped jus-
tice and others of the same kind were gathered
up by Jack Powers, who became the recognized
leader of a band of robbers and desperadoes.
Powers came to the coast as a member of Ste-
venson's regiment. After his discharge from
.-ervice he turned gambler and robber. .\1-
thougli it was known that he was implicated
in a numl)cr of robberies and several mur-
ders, he escaped punishment. He was arrested
in 1856 when the vigilance committee was dis-
posing of his kind. Although he was released
he felt safer to be beyond the jurisdiction of the
committee. He went to Sonora, Mexico, where
he stocked a ranch with stolen cattle. In a quar-
rel with one of his men he was shot and killed.
His body when found was half eaten by hogs.

Fear of the vigilance committee drove out
of San Francisco in 1856 a number of undesir-
able citizens. Among those who fled from the
city was Ned McGowan, a notorious and dis-
reputable politician, who, with several others of
liis kind, had been indicted by the grand jury of
San P^rancisco county as accessory before the
fact of the murder of James King of William.
JMcGowan made his escape to Santa Barbara,
where he was assisted and befriended by Jack
Powers and some others whose sympathies
were with the criminal element. The vigilantes
chartered a vessel and sent thirty of their men,
under the command of one of their captains, to
capture him. McGowan's Santa Barbara friends,
some of whom were wealthy and influential,
kept him concealed until the vigilantes left.
After the disbanding of the vigilance commit-
tee McGowan's friends in the legislature se-
cured the passage of a bill giving him a change
of venue from San Francisco to Napa county.
He was tried and acquitted mainly on the evi-
dence of one of the twenty-two doctors who at-
tended King after he was shot. This physicia'n
testified that King was killed by the doctors
and not by Casey.

Local vigilance committees, between 1855
and i860, in Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo,
Monterey and Santa Cruz to a considerable ex-
tent purified the moral atmosphere of these
coast counties; but Santa Barbara, judging from
a grand jury report made to the court of ses-
sions in 1859, seems to have been immune from
outbreaks of vigilantes. Says this report:
"Thieves and villains of every grade have been
from time to time upheld, respected, fostered
and pampered by our influential citizens, and, if
need be, aided and assisted in escaping from
merited i)unishnient due their crimes. * * *
OfTenses. thefts and villainies in defiance of the
law. (if every grade and character, from the

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

161

horse and cattle thief to the highway robber
and midnight assassin, have dwelt, to our
knowledge, for the last five years in our very
midst."

For a decade and a half after the discovery
of gold in California the owners of the great
ranches of Santa Barbara continued, as they
had been in the past, the feudal lords of the land.
Their herds were more profitable than gold
mines and their army of retainers gave them
unlimited political power, which they did not
always use wisely or well.

The high price of cattle, the abundant rain-
fall of the years 1860-61-62 and the consequent
luxuriant growth of grass led to an overstock-
ing of the cattle ranges. When the terrible dry
years of 1863 and 1864 came, the stockmen
were in no condition to carry their numerous
herds through the drought. "The county assess-
ment roll of 1863 showed over 200,000 head
of cattle in Santa Barbara county. This prob-
ably was 100,000 less than the true number.
When grass started in the winter of 1864-65 less
than 5,000 head were alive. The great herds
were gone, and the shepherd kings were kings
no more, for their ranchos were mortgaged be-
yond redemption, and in the next five years
passed entirely out of their hands."*

Tlie downfall of these feudal lords was, in-
deed, pathetic. For nearly a century their an-
cestors and they themselves had ruled the land.
The transition of the country from the domina-
tion of Spain to that of Mexico had not afifected
their rule. The conquering Saxon had come,
but his advent had only increased their wealth
without lessening their power; at least such was
the case in the coast counties. The famine
years and their own improvidence had at last
undone them. In the days of their affluence
they had spent lavishly. If money was needed,
it was easy to negotiate a loan on their broad
acres. Rates of interest in early times were
usurious, ruinous. Five, ten and even fifteen per
cent a month were no uncommon rates. Present
needs were pressing and pay day was manaiia
(tomorrow). The mortgage, with its cancerous
interest, was made and the money spent. So
when the "famine years" swept away the herds
and flocks there was nothing to sell or mort-
gage to pay interest and the end came quickly.
It was with the stoicism of fatalists that the great
ranch owner viewed their ruin. They had be-
sought the intercession of their patron saints
for the needed rain. Their prayers had been
luianswered. It was the will of God, whv com-

•s Hisl.

of Sant;i P.arl>aia.

plain? Thus do Faith and Fatalism often meet
on a common plane.

During the next four or five years several
uf the great ranchos were subdivided, or segre-
gated portions cut up into small tracts. When
immigration began to drift into the coast coun-
ties in the early '70s many of these small tracts
in Santa Barbara were bought by eastern immi-
grants and the transition from cattle-raising to
grain-growing and fruit culture wrought a great
change not only in the character of the prod-
ucts, but in the character of the population as
well.

The write-up of the climate and agricultural
possibilities of the coast counties by NordhofT
and others, the judicious advertising of the re-
sources of the county by J. A. Johnson, editor
of the Santa Barbara Press (a paper established
in 1868), increased steamer communication, and
the prospects of a railroad down the coast, all
combined, attracted settlers from Northern Cali-
fornia and the eastern states. The price of land
advanced and in 1874 the city and the county
experienced their first boom. The dry year of
1876-77 checked the rising wave of prosperity,
and disastrously afifected the sheep industry,
which since the "famine years" had to a consid-
erable extent taken the place of cattle-raising.
Business revived in the early '80s, and the
county made good progress. The completion
to Santa Barbara in 1887 of the southern end of
the Southern Pacific Coast Railroad, and the
prospect of an early closing of the gap between
the northern and southern ends of that road
gave the city and county their second boom.
Real estate values went up like a rocket. In
1886 the count V assessment roll footed up
$8,585,485; in 1887 it went up to $15,035,982,
an increase of seventy-five per cent in one year.
When railroad building ceased the reaction
came. Land values dropped, but the county
continued to grow, notwithstanding the long
and discouraging delay of fourteen years in clos-
ing the gap in direct railroad communication
between San Francisco and Santa Barbara.
March 31, 1901, the first through trains from
the north and the south passed over the com-
pleted coast line of the Southern Pacific Rail-
road. The event was not heralded by any great
demonstration, nor was it followed by a land
boom, as in 1887, yet there can be no doubt but
that it marks the beginning of a new era in the
growth and development of the city and county
of Santa Barbara.

LOMPOC.

In August. 1874. the Lompoc Valley Com-
jianv, an incorporation, bought the ranchos
Lompoc and Mission Vieja de La Purisima.

162

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

containing a total of 45,644.49 acres. A consid-
erable portion of these lands was divided into
5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 acre tracts. One square
mile about the center of the Lompoc valley and
nine miles from the coast was reserved for a
town site. The sale of the lands began No-
vember 9, 1874. It had been widely advertised
and attracted a large crowd. The capital stock
of the company was divided into 100 shares oi
$5,000 each. While the sale was in progress
shares rose to a premium of $1,000. During
the sale about $700,000 worth of land and lots
were disposed of. The average price of the
farm land was $60 per acre. Some of the corner
lots in the town site sold as high as $1,200.

Lompoc was founded as a temperance colony,
and like all such colonies has had its battles
with the liquor traffic. The first engagement
was with a druggist, who was carrying on an
illicit traffic in forbidden liquids. His place was
invaded by a number of citizens and a Mrs.
Pierce plied an ax on a 40-gallon cask of whis-
key and flooded the store with the fiery liquid.
The druggist drew a pistol and threatened to
shoot the destroyers of his intoxicants, but, con-
fronted by two hundred crusaders, he concluded
that discretion was the better part of valor and
put up his gun. Another engagement, which
scored a "knock-out" for the opponents of the
liquor traffic, took place on the evening of May
20, 1 88 1. A bomb was thrown into the saloon
of George Walker. Nobody was hurt, but the
saloon and its contents were completely de-
molished. The Lompoc Record, commenting
on the ''earthquake" (as the people facetiously
called it), said: "Any one looking for a location
for a saloon had better not select a community
founded on temperance principles where the
land is sold on express conditions that no liquor
shall be made or sold thereon, where public sen-
timent is so nearly unanimous against saloons
and where "earthquakes' are so prevalent and
destructive." The seismic disturbances that
shook up saloons in the early days of the colony
have ceased. The crusaders have buried their lit-
tle hatchets, but not in the heads of whiskey
barrels. The report of the Santa Barbara Cham-
ber of Commerce for 1901 says of Lompoc:
"The liquor traffic is confined by license of $73
per month each to two saloons."

Lompoc is an incorporated city of the sixth
class. It has a grammar school building, cost-
ing $15,000; a union high school that, with its
furnishings, cost $12,000; the Methodi.st North,
Methodist South. Baptist, Christian, Presby-
terian. Roman Catholic and Episcopal have each
its own church l)uilding. A bank, mercantile
houses, hotels, restaurants, blacksmith shops,
creamery, livery stable, warehouses, fruit pack-

ing houses, etc., make up the business establish-
ments of the town. Two weekly newspapers are
published in the town, the Record and the Jour-
nal. The Lompoc Record was established April
10, 1875, and is one of the oldest newspapers in
the county.

GUADALUPE.

ibis town is ninety-five miles northwesterly
from Santa Barbara on the Southern Pacific
Railroad. In 1872 John Dunbar opened a store
at this point and was appointed postmaster
wlien the post-office was established here. This
was the beginning of the town. In 1874 it had
grown to be a village of 100 houses. In 1875 a
newspaper, the Guadalupe Telegraph, was es-
tablished. It has now a bank, a. hotel and sev-
eral mercantile establishments. A spur of the
Southern Pacific Railroad runs to the Union
Sugar Factory at Batteravia.

BATTERAVIA.

The Union Sugar Factory at Batteravia was
built in 1898 at a cost of $1,000,000. It em-
ploys during the sugar-making season 500 men
and works up 500 tons per day. The lime used
in the manufacture of sugar from beets is
burned and prepared for use at the factory. Last
season the factory used 8,000 tons of lime. The
company has a store, shops and boarding-
houses at Batteravia.

SANTA MARIA.

Santa Maria, situated near the center of the
Santa Maria valley on the Pacific Coast Rail-
road, was founded in 1876. It is the business
center of a rich agricultural district. A branch
line of railroad, five miles long, extends to the
sugar factory on Guadalupe Lake. The town
has a grammar school employing five teachers
and a union high school. It has a bank, three
large mercantile establishments and several
smaller ones. The community supports two
weekly newspapers, the Santa Maria Times,
founded in 1872, and the Graphic.

Lo.s Oliv.\.s. founded in 1880, is the present
terminus of the Pacific Coast Railroad and is a
shipping point of considerable importance.

Lo.s At. AMOS, founded in 1878, situated on
the Pacific Coast Railway, midway between
Santa Ynez and Santa Maria, has a population
of about 300. It is the commercial outlet of an
agricultural district of about 150,000 acres, most
of which is grazing land.

SANTA YNEZ.

The village of Santa Ynez is situated in the
midst of the Rancho Canada de Los Finos or

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

] 03

College ranch. The College ranch or grant was
given to the padres in 1843 to found a college,
hence the name. The town of Santa Ynez has
an excellent hotel, a grammar school, a high
school, stores, shops, etc.; also a weekly news-
paper, Tlic Santa Vncc Argus. It is surrounded
by a large area of farming and grazing lands.

GoLETA is a small village eight miles to the
northwest of Santa Barbara. The country
around to a considerable extent is devoted to
walnut-growing and olive culture.

El Montecito (the Little Forest) is prop-
erly a suburb of Santa Barbara. It is about
four miles eastward of the city. The valley is
nearly oval, and opens to the southwest on the
sea. It contains an area of about nine square
miles. It is divided into small tracts, and is
a favorite place for the suburban residences of
persons doing business in the city. The Santa
Barbara Country Club's grounds are here. The
cottages are built on a level bluff above the
ocean. The club has its golf links, tennis courts,
bath house, wharf for boating and other acces-
sories tor pleasure and amusement.

SuiMMERLAND, six miles below Santa Bar-
bara, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, is the
principal petroleum district of Santa Barbara
county. Oil was struck here in 1893. The oil
belt is about a quarter of a mile wide and a mile
long. Most of the wells are sunk in the ocean
beyond low-water mark. Wharves are run out
and the wells bored beside the wharves. Some
of these wharves are 1.500 feet long. The
output of the oil wells, of which there are about
300, is about 15,000 barrels a month. A railroad
station, post-office, several business places,
boarding houses and residences of oil operators
constitute the village of Summerland.

Carpinteria valley is about fifteen miles
due east from Santa Barbara. It is sheltered
by mountains on three sides and opens to the
sea. Its area is about ten square miles, and its
width between the mountains and the ocean
varies from one to three miles. It is one of the
oldest settled valleys in the county. It bears
the name given it by the soldiers of Portola's
expedition in 1769. They found the Indians
here manufacturing canoes, and they named the
place Carpinteria (carpenter shop). The village
is located near the center of the valley on the
Southern Pacific Railroad.

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

Three of the Channel islands are included in
the area of Santa Barbara county, namely San
Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz. These
islands are mainly devoted to sheep and cattle-
raising.

San Miguel, the most westerly of the group,

is seven and one-half miles long, with an average
width of two and one-half miles. The principal
landing place is Cuyler's Harbor. At this land-
ing Cahrillo, the discoverer of California, is
buried. The island is now owned by the San
Miguel Island Company.

Santa Rosa Island is nine and three-fourths
miles long, with an average width of seven and
one-half miles, and contains 53,000 acres. It
was granted by the Mexican government to Don
Carlos Carrillo after his failure to secure the
governorship of California in 1837. He gave it
in 1842, as a marriage portion, to his two
daughters, who were married on the same day,
one to J. C. Jones, United States consul to the
Sandwich Islands, and the other to Capt. A. B.
Thompson. It now belongs to the heirs of A.
P. More.

Santa Cruz Island is twenty-two and one-
half miles long by five and one-half wide, and
contains 52,760 acres. It lies almost opposite
the city of Santa Barbara and twenty-five miles
distant. The surface is uneven, the hills at one
point rising to the height of 1,700 feet. The
Mexican government at one time attempted to
utilize the island for a penal colony. About a
dozen convicts were landed on the island with
live stock and provisions, with the expectation
that they would become self-supporting. They
remained on the island long enough to eat up
the provisions and the live stock. Then they
constructed a raft, crossed the channel to Santa
Barbara and quartered themselves on the ■Mis-
sion fathers. They served out their sentences
in irons. The island once had a large Indian
population. It is a favorite hunting ground for
Indian relic hunters. It is now owned by the
Santa Cruz Island Company.

PUBLIC schools.

The first public school opened in Santa Bar-
bara was taught by a young sailor named Jose
Manuel Toca. He taught from October, 1795,
to June, 1797. Jose Medina, another sailor of
the Spanish navy, succeeded him and trained
the young ideas until December, 1798. Manuel
de \'argas, a retired sergeant of the army, who,
in 1794 taught at San Jose the pioneer public
school of California, was teaching at Santa Bar-
bara in 1799. How long he continued to wave
the pedagogical birch, or, rather, ply the cat-
o'nine-tails, which was the schoolmaster's in-
strument of punishment then, is not known.
With the departure of Governor Borica, the
schools of California took a vacation. During
the closing years of Spanish rule, it seems to
have been mostly vacation in them.

The first school under Mexican rule in Santa
Barbara that we have any report of was in 1829,

Ifil

TtTSTOKK AL AND ):iui,RArUlL Al

when a primary school of sixty-seven pupils
was conducted at the presidio. Governor
Echeandia was a friend to education, and made
a vigorous effort to establish public schools.
But "unable," says Bancroft, "to contend
against the enmity of the friars, the indifference
of the people and the poverty of the treasury,
he accomplished no more than his predecessors.
Reluctantly he abandoned the contest, and the
cause of education declined." And it might be
added, the cause of education continued in a
state of decline during the remaining years of
I\Iexican rule. The curriculum of the Spanish
and Mexican schools was like the annals of the
poor — "short and simple." To paraphrase Pete
Jones' alliterative formula, it consisted of "lick-
in' and no larnin'." The principal numbers in
the course were the doctrina Cristiana and Fray
Ripalda's Catechism. These were learned by
rote before the pupil was taught to read. If
there was any time left him after he had commit-
ted to memory these essentials to his future
spiritual welfare, he was given a little instruc-
tion in reading, writing and numbers for his
earthly advantage.

The invalid soldiers, the schoolmasters of
early days, were brutal tyrants, who ruled with-
out justice and punished without mercy. Gov-
ernor Micheltorena attempted to establish a
public school system in the territory; but his
scheme failed from the same causes which had
neutralized the efforts of his predecessors. Un-
der his administration in 1844, a primary school
was opened in Santa Barbara, but was closed
after a few months for want of funds. Pio Pico,
the last governor under Mexican rule, under-
took to establish public schools, but his efforts
were fruitless. The old obstacles, an empty
treasury, incompetent teachers and indifferent
parents, confronted him and put an end to his
educational schemes.

During the first two or three years of Ameri-
can rule in Santa Barbara, but little attention
was paid to education. The old indifference re-
mained. The discovery of gold had not greatly
increased the population nor wrought any
change in social conditions.

When the common council in April, 1850,
took control of the municipal business of the
newly created city, it inherited from the ayun-
tamiento a school taught by a Spanish school-
master, Victor Vega. The school was in part
supported by public funds. Tlie council sent
a certain number of poor pupils, i. e., pupils who
were unable to pay tuition, for whom they paid
a certain stipulated sum. March 26, 1851, "the
committee appointed to examine the school,
reported, and the president was ordered to pay
the schoolmaster, Victor Vega, $64.50, and to

draw $64 for every month." This is the first
recorded school report of the city.

Evidently there was considerable truancy.
At the meeting of the council, November 8,
185 1, Jose M. Covarubias was appointed a com-
mittee to examine the school once a month and
to report precisely the number and names of
pupils who absent themselves and the time of
their absence. Any pupil absent over a day lost
his seat.

In November, 1852, three school commission-
ers were elected in each of the three townships
of Santa Barbara county. Each township was
a school district. After their election the con-
trol of the schools in Santa Barbara passed from
the council to the schools commissioners of the
district. In 1854 a tax of five cents on the $100
was levied for the support of the public schools.
Previous to this the school revenues had been
derived from liquor licenses, fines, etc.

At the election in 1854 Joaquin Carrillo, dis-
trict judge, was elected county school superin-
tendent. He did not qualify, and A. F. Hinch-
man was appointed to fill the vacancy. The
Gazette of December 20, 1855, says: "According
to the school census there are 453 white children
between the ages of four and eighteen years in
Santa Barbara district, which is sixty miles long
and forty wide. There is one school in it, in
charge of a schoolmaster."

December 24, 1855, George D. Fisher, county
school superintendent, reported a school taught
in the first district (San Buenaventura) by John
Rapelli, and one in the second (Santa Barbara),
taught by Pablo Caracela. Both of these
schools were taught in the Spanish language.
.American residents had no place to send their
children except to a school kept by George
Campbell at the Mission Santa Inez (third dis-
trict), a distance of fifty miles from the bulk of
the people.

February 4, 1856, two teachers were employed
in the Santa Barbara city schools, Owen Con-
nolly teaching the English school in "the house
adjoining the billiard saloon," and Victor Mon-
dran teaching the Spanish school in "the house
of the late Pedro Diablar."

In 1857 it was decided "that instruction in the
iniblic schools shall be in the English language."
The native Californians had opposed this, but
the aggressive Anglo-Saxon won. It was the
ringing out of the old, the ringing in of the
new.

The schools had now passed the experimental
stages, and had become an institution of the
land. .Although no school district in the county
owned a school house, yet public education had
been systemized. Teachers were required to
pass an examination in the subjects taught in

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ir,5

the schools, and their compensation was no
longer subject to whims of the parents.

Although public schools had been established
and somewhat systemized, the people were slow
to avail themselves of the educational facilities
offered. In 1867, fifteen years after the public
school system of California had been inaugu-
rated, there were but three school districts and
five teachers in Santa Barbara, which then in-
cluded all of what is now Ventura county. Of
the 1,332 census children, only 305, or 23 per
cent of the whole, attended any school, public
or private, during the year.

The next decade showed a great change in

educational conditions. Ventura county had
been cut off from the parent county in 1873, but
taking the territory as it stood in 1867. there
were in it in 1877, ^^ districts and 53 teachers.
Of the 4,030 census children, 2,782 had been
enrolled in the schools.

In i8yo there were 4,429 census children in
Santa Barbara county, 3,439 of whom attended
school. In 1900 there were 5,617 census chil-
dren and 66 districts.

Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Santa Maria and
Santa Ynez each have a high school. Santa Bar-
bara recently voted $60,000 bonds to build a
new high school building.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE CITY OF SANTA BARBARA.

SANTA BARBARA was incorporated as
a city by an act of the legislature
approved April 9, 1850. The early mu-
nicipal records were kept very carelessly. There
is no record in the archives of the first city
election. The first record of any official action
taken for the organization of a city is the min-
utes of the meeting of the common council
held August 26, 1850. A mayor and members
of the council had been elected at some previous
date, and the councilmen-elect met to organize.
The minutes of their proceedings were kept on
sheets of foolscap stitched together. Either
record books could not be obtained then in
Santa Barbara, or the members of the council did
not consider their acts of municipal legislation
worth preserving in any better form. The
minutes of the first meeting are as follows: "In
the city of Santa Barbara, on the 26th day of
August, 1850, the persons elected to the com-
mon council assembled and proceeded to elect
a president. Lewis T. Burton having received
a majority of the votes, was declared elected.
Luis Carrillo was then elected clerk.

Luis Carrillo (Rubica),

Tenio" (Clerk).

From the subsequent minutes we learn that
Francisco de la Guerra was the first mayor, and
"the persons elected to the common council"
were Isaac J. Sparks, Anastasio Carrillo, Luis
Carrillo, Lewis T. Burton and Antonio Rod-
riguez. Having elected a president and clerk,
or secretary, the council took a vacation for
nearly three months. Evidently municipal busi-
ness was not pressing. The record of the next
meeting reads: "November 21, 1850. At the

house Anastasio Carrillo, Common Council of
Santa Barbara. Present, Isaac J. Sparks, Anas-
tasio Carrillo and Luis Carrillo. Lewis T. Bur-
ton and Antonio Rodriguez sent in their resig-
nations as members of the council, which were
accepted. Isaac J. Sparks was elected president
of the council. An election was ordered to be
held on the second day of December next for
two members of the council, a treasurer and a
marslial; the election to be held in one of the
corridors of the house of Lewis T. Burton.
Nicolas A. Den was appointed inspector.
Augustus F. Hinchman was chosen clerk of the
common council.

(Signed) Luis Carrillo, Secretario."

At the special city election, held December 2,
1850, Samuel Barney and Edward S. Hoar were
elected councilmen; Carlos Antonio Carrillo,
treasurer, and Juan Ayala, marshal. At the
next meeting of the council, a committee, con-
sisting of Isaac J. Sparks, Antonio Maria de La
Guerra and Nicolas Den was appointed to re-
ceive proposals for a survey of the city and
report thereon to the council within six weeks.
At the meeting of December 14, 1850, a demand
was made on the members of the late ayunta-
miento for all papers and documents belonging
to the old pueblo of Santa Barbara and an ac-
counting for all funds in their hands on April 9,
1850, the date of the city's incorporation.

.'\t the meeting of January 8, 185 1, the com-
mittee appointed at a previous meeting to ascer-
tain what had become of the papers, documents
and moneys in the hands of the officers of the
late ayuntamiento reported that the moneys
were in the hands of the late prefect, Joaquin

Ififl

ISTOKKAL AND rUCGRArillCAL RECORD,

C'arrillo. From subsequent minutes it seems
tliey remained there. What became of the
papers and documents of the ayuntamiento the
records of the council do not show.

A contract was made by the council, January
29, 185 1, with Salisbury Haley, "To make a
complete survey of all that part of the city
bounded on the southeast by the shore of the
sea; on the northwest by a straight line running-
parallel to the general direction of said shore
boundary directly through the southwest corner
of the Mission Garden and from hill to hill on
cither side; on the southwest by a line running
along the foot of the mesa; and on the northeast
by a line beginning at the Salinitas and follow-
ing the city boundary to the foot of the hills, then
to the said northwest line; to divide said tract
into squares of 150 yards by streets which shall
be sixty feet wide, except two streets to be
designated by the councfl, which shall be eighty
feet wide; to make an accurate map of said
city." For making the survey and map, Haley
was to receive $2,000, to be paid in installments
of $500 each. April 5, 1851, Haley presented
to the council a map of his survey of the city
and a demand for the first installment of $500
on the contract.

October 23, 1852, Vitus Wrackenrueder was
given a contract to survey the central part of
the city and make a new map. His survey is
now regarded as the official survey of the city.
These surveys in some places ran streets
through the houses and in others left the resi-
dences without street frontage. It was many
years before all the streets were opened through
the central or thickly inhabited portion of the
city. Those whose land was taken for streets,
were given equivalent tracts in the squares be-
longing to the city.

At the municipal election held in May, 185 1.
Joaquin Carrillo was elected mayor; he was
also county judge. Raymundo Carrillo was
chosen treasurer; Thomas Warner, marshal
and assessor; Esteban Ortega, John Kays,
Antonio Arellanas, Jose Lorenzano and R. W.
Wallace, members of the council. Although
the flag of the United States had been waving
in California for four years and the constitution
had arrived more recently to keep it company,
yet the people of Santa Barbara had not become
accustomed to the new order of things. At the
meeting of the council, ]\Iay 26, 1851, Samuel
P>arry, Esq., sent a communication to the coun-
cil informing that body that he had been ap-
pointed United States revenue officer at the
port of Santa Barbara. Whereupon the council
by resolution agreed to grant him official recog-
nition as an officer of the United States. Had
the council considered him a f^crsona uon grata

and refused him recognition, it is hard to say
N\hat the consequence might have been — to
Santa Barbara.

The early ordinances of the common council
give us glimpses of conditions existing then
that have long since become obsolete. The
Indian question, fifty years ago, was one that
worried the municipal officers of Santa Barbara.
as it did those of all other cities and towns of
Southern California. The ex-neophyte of the
missions was a pariah. He was despised and
abused by the whites. His one ambition was
to get drunk, and there were always high caste
whites, or those who considered themselves
such, ready and willing to gratify poor Lo's
ambition. To imprison an Indian and give him
regular rations was no punishment. He enjoyed
such punishment. In Los Angeles, Indian con-
victs were auctioned ofT every Monday morning
to the highest bidder for the term of their sen-
tence. In Santa Barbara, an ordinance passed
June 4, 185 1, reads: "When Indians for viola-
tions of city ordinances are committed to
prison, the recorder shall hire them out for the
term of their imprisonment."

One of the most singular decisions ever an-
nounced by a court of justice was given in a
case of liquor selling to Indians. .\ certain
festal day in the early '50s had been celebrated
with a great deal of hilarity and imbibing of
wine and aguardiente. The noble red man had
vied with his white brothers in celebrating and
in getting drunk. This was an offense to the
white man, and as there was a heavy fine for
selling liquor to Indians, some of the whites
instigated the arrest of certain liquor dealers.
-Among the accused was a scion of one of the
most influential families. He was charged with
having sold liquor to a Yaqui Indian. The
evidence was very clear that the liquor had been
sold by the defendant to the Yaqui, but to con-
vict a member of that family, the justice very
well knew, would be his political undoing for
all time. So in the trial the ethnological ques-
tion was sprung as to whether a Yaqui was an
Indian or a white man. The race question was
argued at great length by the attorneys on both
sides, and the judge, after summing up the evi-
dence, decided that the prominent cheek bones,
yellow skin, straight black hair and dark eyes
of the Yaqui were the effects of climate and not
of heredity, and inside the Yaqui was a white
man. The saloon-keeper was declared not guilty
and discharged.

The city government was administered eco-
nomically in the early '50s, and taxes were light.
-According to Ordinance No. 30, adopted June
jg, 1852, the mayor, acting as recorder or police
judge, received $2 for each conviction, which

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

1(5 r

amount he was required Id pa)' into tho dXy
treasury. It does not appear that he was allowed
to draw anything out of the treasury for salary.
The city clerk received $35 per month, the city
marshal $20. the city treasurer three per cent
on all moneys paid in; the city tax collector six
per cent on all collections and the city attorney
$10 per month.

The lighting of the city was accomplished in
a very economical manner. An ordinance passed
in 1852 required "every head of a family in that
part of the city bounded north by Santa Barbara
street, east by Ortega, south by ChapuLa and
west lay Figueroa, to cause a lantern containing
a lighted lamp or candle to be suspended every
dark or cloudy evening in front of his house
from dark to ten o'clock; neglecting to do so
he will be fined not less than 50 cents or more
than $1 for each ofTense."

Fifty years ago Santa Barbara was, to use
an expressive slang phrase of to-day, a "wide
open town." Saloon keeping was the most
popular industry. Of fifty licenses granted be-
tween August, 1850, and February, 1851, thirty-
two were for permission to retail liquors. Sun-
day was a gala day, and dissipation reached high
tide then.

Before the conquest, the Californians were
moderate drinkers. Although using wine freely,
they seldom drank to excess. When they wished
to indulge in a social glass, and some one stood
treat for the crowd, they all drank not standing,
but sitting on their horses. A squad of three
or four, or half a dozen may be, would ride up
to a pulperia and, without dismounting, one of
the party would order the drinks. The mercader
de vino (wine merchant) would bring out a cup
or glass filled with wine or aguardiente; each
one would take a sip and pass it to his neighbor.
One cup served all the party; it w^as a sort of
loving cup. It is said that once, when a crowd
of American miners bestowed their patronage
for the first time upon a native vinatero, and
each called for a separate glass, the wineseller,
who had but one glass in his shop, had to send
out and borrow enough glasses from his neigh-
bors to supply the demand. When each one of
his patrons poured out a full glass of fiery
aguardiente and gulped it down, the astonished
saloonkeeper crossed himself and implored the
saints to protect him from the American di-
ablos.

In 1855, a spasm of virtue seems to have
seized the city council. It passed a Sunday
closing ordinance: "All stores, shops, taverns
and groceries shall close from 12 o'clock Satur-
day night to 12 o'clock p. m. the following
Sunday, except butcher, baker and apothecary
shops," so read the ordinance. For a violation

nf this ninnicipal law the pcnall)- was a fine of
not less than $10 or more than $50.

The early councils did business very care-
lessly. The ofSce of councilman was not a
lucrative one. The members took their pay in
honors, and honors were not always easy. The
office sought the man, but the man dodged it
when he could. Resignations were frequent,
and as vacancies were not promptly filled, the
membership of the council was not often full.
The council elected in j\Iay, 1853, held no meet-
ing between May 5 and August 2J for want
of a quorum. When a quorum w'as obtained,
the disgusted clerk offered his resignation, and
it was found that the mayor and two council-
men-elect had failed to qualify. An election
was ordered to fill vacancies. Whether they
were filled or what that council did afterwards
does not appear. When a new council was
elected in May, 1854, the minutes of the old
council had not been engrossed. The new
council ordered them written up, and blank
pages were left in the record book for their
entry, but the pages are still blank.

The members of the new council instituted
an investigation to find out whether the old
council could grant its members city lands at
lower rates than the appraised value; and also
to ascertain whether the land laws of the old
a}-untamiento were still in force. What they
found out is not written in the record.

CITY LANDS.

Shortly after the organization of the United
States land commission in California, Santa
r)arbara presented her claim for eight and three-
fourths leagues of pueblo lands. In May, 1854,
the council allowed a bill of $700 for prosecuting
the city's claim. December 2^, 1854. a public
meeting was called to consider the advisability
of prosecuting the city's claim to its pueblo
lands in the L'nited States courts. The land
commission had rejected the city's claim to
eight and three-fourths leagues. March 10,
1855, Hinchman & Hoar were given a fee of
$500 "for prosecuting the city's claims to her
lands before the United States District Court."
After a long drawn out contest in the courts,
the city's claim w^as finally allowed in 1861 for
four leagues, or 17,826 ''/i„n acres, extending
from the Rancho Goleta to the .\rroyo de La
Carpinteria. It was surveyeil by G. H. Thomp-
son, May, 1867, and a patent signed by Presi-
dent U. S. Grant, May 25, 1872.

lender the Spanish and Alexican regimes,
there was no survey made of the pueblo lands
and no map or plat of the town. The ayunta-
miento granted house lots on the application
of any one desiring to build. The only survey

1C8

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

made was li.> measure so maii\ \aras from some
previous grant. Streets in those days were nol
made, but, like Topsy, they "just grow-ed," antl
in growing many of them became twisted. It
took years alter the Haley survey was made
to untwist some, or rather to adjust the houses
to the new street lines. The street names given
were mostly in Spanish. The mixed population
of the early '50s so bungled the spelling of these
that in 1854 the council appointed a committee
'"to correct the orthography of certain streets."
In the nomenclature of its streets, Santa
Barbara has remembered many of the famous
men of the Spanish and Mexican eras of Cali-
fornia. Not only have famous men been remem-
bered, but local historical incidents, too, have
been commemorated. The historic event that
gave Canon Perdido street its name, gave names
also to two other streets and a design for a city
seal. Briefly told, the story runs about as fol-
lows: In the winter of 1847-48, the American
brig Elisabeth was wrecked near Santa Bar-
bara. Among the articles saved was a six-
pounder brass cannon. It was brought ashore
and lay on the beach for some time. One dark
night in April, 1848, a little squad of Califor-
nians stole down to the beach, hauled it away
and buried it in the sands on the banks of the
Estero. What their object was in taking the
gun no one knows, probably they did not know
themselves. Several days passed before the gun
was missed. Capt. Lippett of Company F,
Stevenson's Regiment of New York Volunteers,
was in command of the post. He was a nervous,
excitable man. In the theft of the cannon, he
thought he had discovered preparations for an
uprising of the natives. He dispatched a courier
post haste to Col. Mason, the military governor
of the territory at Monterey, with a highly
colored account of his discovery. Mason, plac-
ing reliance in Lippett's story and desiring to
give the Californians a lesson that would teach
them to let guns and revolutions alone, levied a
military contribution of $500 on the town, to be
paid by a capitation tax of $2 on every male
over 20 years, the balance to be assessed on the
real and personal property of the citizens, the
money when collected to be turned over to the
post quartermaster. The promulgation of the
order in Santa Barbara raised a storm of indig-
nation, and among those whose wail w.as the
loudest were the American-born residents of
the town, who had become Mexican citizens by
naturalization. Col. Stevenson, commander of
the southern military district, who had been
ordered to collect the pueblo's ransom by tact,
by the soothing strains of a brass band and the
influence of Pablo de la Guerra, all exerted on
the nation's birthday, July 4, succeeded in col-

lecting the money without any more dangerous
nntl>rfak than a few nuUtered curses on the
hated gringos.

After peace was declared, Governor Mason
ordered the money turned over to the prefect
of the pueblo to be used in building a jail.
When the city survey was made in 1850, three
street names commemorated the incident,
Canon Perdido (Lost Cannon) street, Quinien-
tos (Five Hundred) street, and Mason street.
When the council, in 1850, chose a design for
a city seal they selected the device of a cannon
statant, encircled by the words "\'ale Quinien-
tos Pesos — Worth Five Hundred Dollars."
The members of the city council made repeated
demands on the ex-prefect for the five hundred
dollars, but he refused to turn it into the city
treasury, claiming that it was entrusted to him
for a specific purpose, and until a jail was built
no money would the city get. The city built
a jail, but the ex-prefect still held on to the
money. The council began legal proceedings
to recover the money, but as the judge of the
district and the ex-prefect were very closely
related the case was transferred to San Fran-
cisco. In some unaccountable way the papers
in the case were lost, and as no new suit was
begun the city never recovered the money. The
council chose a new design for its seal, and all
the city has left for its $500 is some street
names.

One stormy night in 1858 the Estero cut a
new channel through its banks. Some citizen
next morning, viewing the effects of the flood,
saw the muzzle of a cannon protruding from the
cut in the bank. Unearthing the gun. it proved
to be the lost cannon. It was hauled up State
street to Canon Perdido, where, mounted on an
improvised carriage, it frowned on the passers
by. Ten years had wrought great changes in
the town and the people. The cannon episode
was ancient history. Nobody cared to preserve
the old gun as an historic relic, and as finders in
this case were keepers, they sold it to a city
merchant for $80, and he disposed of it in San
Francisco at a handsome profit to a junk dealer
for old brass.

Santa Barbara in early days had her squatter
troubles, in common with other parts of the
state, covered by Spanish grants. The most
noted of these was what is known as the Arroyo
Burro affair. I give the following account of it
taken mainly from Mason's History of Santa
Barbara: John \'ida!, an ex-member of Steven-
son's Regiment of New York Volunteers, had
for some time rented a piece of land from Dr.
Den. When the lease expired, he laid claim to
the land under the United States pre-emption
laws. Tlie court adjudged the land to Dr. Den,

HISTORICAL AND lUOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Ifif)

and Sheriff Twist was ordered to evict Vidal.
A number of gamblers, among whom was the
notorious Jack Powers, rallied to the assistance
of Vidal.

Vidal and his friends were reported to be
fortified at his ranch house. Sheriff Twist sum-
moned a posse coinitatus of two hundred men,
and secured a small cannon that stood on the
Plaza to batter down the fortifications. The
Twist party assembled at the Egirrea House,
then used for a court house. Vidal and his
companions came riding up as if to begin the
fight. Some say their intentions were to effect
a compromise. As Vidal rode up two of his
men, "Little Mickey" and a Spaniard, lassoed
the cannon and tried to drag it away. Twist
fired upon them, and the firing became general.
Vidal was shot and fell from his horse. The
Spaniard of the cannon episode stabbed Twist
with a knife. A running fight ensued, but with-
out any further casualties. Vidal lingered four-
teen days before death relieved him of his
sufferings. Pablo de la Guerra went out to the
fort next day and induced the Powers gang to
submit to the legal authorities. The disputed
tract was afterwards declared by the courts to
be government land.

THE PIONEER NEWSPAPER.

The pioneer newspaper of Santa Barbara was
the Santa Barbara Gazette. The first number
was issued Thursday, May 24, 1855. It was a
four-page, five-column weekly, size of page
12x18 inches. One page was printed in Spanish.
W. B. Keep & Co. were the proprietors. The
names of the members of the company were
R. Hubbard, T. Dunlap, Jr., and W. B. Keep.
Later on the firm was Hubbard & Keep. In
their salutatory the publishers say: "After tak-
ing into consideration the fact that there are
now in California more newspapers than in any
three states in the Union, the doubt of future
success of one more might naturally arise in
the minds of some wiseacres of our county. A
field is undoubtedly open for enterprise and
energy in this portion of the state. The counties
of Los Angeles and San Diego have, for some
time, supported papers, and without boasting
we believe that the county of Santa Barbara
possesses many advantages over these."'

The Gazette was vigorously edited. It made
strenuous efforts to arouse the officials and the
citizens of the sleepy old city to make improve-
ments, but it was labor in vain. If it did not
arouse them to put forth efforts, it did excite
their wrath. In the issue of October 4, 1855,
the editor draws this picture of existing con-
ditions within the city: "There are deep, un-
covered wells, pit-falls and man-traps in various

parts of the city, rendering it extremely hazard-
ous tu traverse the streets at night, not only
for horses and teams but foot passengers as
well. There are unsightly gorges and gullies
through which the water flows into the street
in winter. The slaughter houses reek with filth,
and the horrid stench from them pollutes the
atmosphere." In another issue the editor ap-
peals to the citizens "to tear themselves away
from the blandishments of keno, billiards and
cards long enough to examine the route for a
post road" over which the mail could be carried
through the coast countries to and from San
Francisco.

The Gazette in its issue of May i, 1856, thus
inveighs against the want of public spirit in the
city officials and citizens: "It does not sound
well to hear it said that since the incorporation
of this city, more than six years ago, not a
single improvement of general utility has been
made, if the survey and maps be excepted. Not
a street has been graded at the public expense,
nor an artesian well nor a public edifice of any
kind even projected, nor a wharf at the landing
attempted or planned or even its cost esti-
mated." These plain statements of facts were
not relished by the old fogies of the town, and
they resolved to crush the paper. Its principal
revenue had been derived from the public print-
ing. A bill was passed by the Legislature (at
the instigation, it is said, of a scion of one of
the ruling families whom the Gazette had casti-
gated) authorizing county officials to publish
legal notices by posting them on bulletin boards.
The public patronage was not sufficient to sup-
port a newspaper. The plant was sold in 1858 to
two Spaniards, who removed it to San Francisco,
where the paper was printed in Spanish as the
Gaceta dc Santa Barbara. It lingered out an
existence of several years, being edited and
printed in San Francisco and publislied in Santa
Barbara. Then it died.

Through the first decade of its existence as
an American city, Santa Barbara grew in a
leisurely way. It was in no haste Ic become a
great city. Old customs prevailed. The Span-
ish language was the prevailing form of speech.
Trade and travel came and went by sea as in
the old hide drogher days. Twice a month a
steamship landed the little budget of mail, some-
times water-soaked in passing through the surf
from ship to shore. Passengers were carried
ashore from the surf boats on the backs of
sailors, for there was no wharf. If there was
no tip offered the sailor there might be a dip
proffered the passenger. The sailor was already
soaked; if he toppled over with his burden
when a breaker struck him a little more salt
water did not disturb him. It was different

iro

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD,

with his burden. Those actiuaiiitcd with the
bucking propensities of the sailors always tipped
before they left the boat.

The feudal lords of the old regime still ruled.
They had cattle on a thousand hills and an army
of retainers. The retainers had votes and the
cattle kings controlled their dependents' ballots.
The second decade — the decade betw-een i860
and 1870 — saw the beginning of the end of old
time manners and customs. The story of the
dethronement of the cattle kings more properly
belongs to the history of the county at large
than to that of the city.

THE NEW ER.\.

The terrible dry years of 1863 and 1864, which
destroyed cattle raising, the dominant industry
of the county, disastrously affected the city.
Destitution prevailed and everybody was dis-
couraged. There was no advance, no building,
no progress during the early '60s. It was not
until immigration began to drift southward
about 1867 that the city shook off its lethargy
and aroused itself to action. The Santa Barbara
wharf was constructed in the summer of 1868.
This greatly facilitated commerce. Previous to
this vessels anchored a mile or two from shore,
and all freight to and from the ship was taken
on surf boats. In early times the only road
between Santa Barbara and San Buenaventura
was along the beach around Punta Gorda and
Rincon Point. In high tide it was often impos-
sible, and it was rendered dangerous on account
of masses of earth falling from the cliffs. A
new road was constructed that avoided the
dangers of Rincon Pass, and a. stage line up
the coast gave increased mail facilities and
regular communication by land between Los
Angeles and San Francisco without waiting for
low tide. Increased steamship communication
with San Francisco brought tourists and visitors,
and the city began to fix up to receive its guests.
June 2, 1870, a franchise w^as granted to Thomas
R. Bard, S. B. Bunkcrhoff, Charles Fernald and
JarrettT. Richards to lay. gas pipes in the streets
and light the city with gas. Several large hotels
were erected, among them the famous Arling-
ton. Property values advanced. Blocks that in
1870 sold for $100 in 1874 changed hands at
$S,ooo.

The Santa Barbara College was founded in
1869 by a joint stock company, of which Elwood
Cooper was a leading member. The college
building w^as erected in 1871. The college sus-
pended in 1878 for want of support. The rooms
on the lower floor of the building, now the San
Marcos, are occupied by the high school classes;
the upper floors are used as an apartment house.

The cornerstone of the new court house was

laid October 5, 1872. The building was com-
|)leted in 1873 at a cost of $60,000.

The First Xational Bank of Santa Barbara
was organized in 1873. in 1876 its building was
completed and occupied. The Santa Barbara
National Bank was organized July, 1875, as the
Santa Barbara County Bank.

The Natural History Society was organized
December, 1876, with a list of twenty-one mem-
bers. For the first two years of its existence
the society met in the Santa Barbara College
building. It had but a small collection. In 1883
about 1,200 volumes of government publica-
tions that had been in charge of the Santa Bar-
bara College were transferred to it. Funds
were donated for furniture and bookcases. Its
collections have had several lodging places, and
are now kept in rooms on the ground floor of the
San Marcos.

THE PUBLIC LIBR^VRV.

The first movement looking towards the
founding of a public library for Santa Barbara
originated with the Odd Fellows. That organi-
zation along in the later '70s had a considerable
collection of books which were loaned out to
readers. The time and trouble involved in loan-
ing the books and looking after them was
too great to be done gratuitously, and the asso-
ciation after a time discontinued loaning, and
the books were stored away.

Under the state law of 1880 for establishing
free libraries, the city council, February 16, 1882,
adopted a resolution to establish a free library
and reading room. At the next citv election T.

B. Dibblee, Jas. AI. Short, O. N. Dimmick, W.
E. Noble and S. B. P. Knox were elected library
trustees. The Odd Fellows donated all the
books in their collection, numbering 2,921 vol-
umes. The first librarian appointed was Mrs.
Mary Page. The city has erected a neat and
commodious library building, so planned that
it can be enlarged without change of design or
inconvenience to the patrons of the library. The
library now has about 14,000 volumes. Mrs. M.

C. Reed is the present librarian, and Miss D.
Chambers, assistant.

The decade between 1870 and 1880 marked
tlic transformation of Santa Barbara from an
adobe town to one built of brick and wood. The
increase of population was not great. After the
decadence of the cattle industry many of the
natives left the country. The population of
Santa Barbara in i860 was 2,351; in 1870, 2,970,
an increase of 26 per cent; in 1880. 3,469, an
increase of 17 per cent. The decade between
1880 and 1890 witnessed its most rapid growth.
Its population in 1880 as previously stated was
3,469; in 1890, 5,864, an increase of nearly 70

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

per cent. In the early '80s began a concerted
movement among the counties of Southern Cali-
fornia to advertise their resources in the Eastern
states. "California on Wheels" was sent on its
mission east. Railroad building, and particu-
larly railroad projecting by real estate agents,
was active. It is remarkal)lc how easily rail-
roads were built then — on paper. A beautifully
illustrated pamphlet advertising the Santa Ynez
valley issued at this time, states that among
the many railroads building or soon to be
built is the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fe line from Santa Monica via San Buena-
ventura to the headwaters of the Santa Ynez
river, making "the shortest, coolest and most
superb scenic route from Los Angeles via the
Salinas valley to San Francisco."

August 17, 1887, the first passenger train from
Los Angeles arrived in Santa Barbara. The
same afternoon came one from San Francisco
via Saugus. The city turned out en masse to
celebrate the event. There was a bancjuet in the
evening and a grand ball. The boom in real
estate was on in earnest and prices expanded, but
the railroad before the end of August stopped
building, and the real estate bubble collapsed.
While the boom lasted, some large sales were
made. The recorded transfers for seven months

aggregated over $5,000,000. As many of the
contracts were not recorded, the sales really
reached about $7,000,000. .V number of sub-
stantial improvemaiits were completed. State
street was paved with bituminous rock for two
miles at a cost of $180,000. Other streets were
graded and miles of sidewalk laid.

The first through trains on the Southern Pa-
cific coast line from San Francisco and Los An-
geles passed through Santa Barbara .March 31.
1901. Among the recent improvements at Santa
Barbara is the completion of St. .\nthony's Col-
lege, a Franciscan college for the preparation of
young men who wish to enter priesthood. It is lo-
cated on rising ground near the old mission. The
corner stone was laid June 13, 1899. It was
formally dedicated April 25, 1901. It is a stone
building, three stories high, and cost about'
$50,000. The school for a number of years had
been conducted in a wing of the old mission.
The president is Rev. Peter Wallischeck, O. F.
M. February 27, 1896, a horrible tragedy
occurred in the monastery of Santa Barbara.
An insane domestic, employed in the building,
shot and killed the Guardian Father Ferdinand
Bergmeyer.

The new high school of Santa Barbara will
cost, when completed, about $60,000.

CHAPTER XXX.

VENTURA COUNTY.

BEFORE THE COUNTY \\'.\S CREAlhU.

THE history of the territory now included
in Ventura county up to the time of its
segregation from Santa Barbara prop-
erly belongs in the sketch of that county. As
but little space could be given it there, I give
a brief review of some of the principal events
occurring during the Mexican and early Ameri-
can periods. The mission buildings of San
Buenaventura formed a nucleus from which the
settlement of the district radiated. The country
contiguous, after the secularization of the mis-
sions, was held in large ranchos by owners
hving in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles, and the
district suffered from absenteeism.

At the time of the American conquest anil
for years afterwards the district was sparsely
populated. In early days San Buenaventura
was one of the stations or stopping places on
the so-called Camino real (royal highway), that
led from mission to mission up and down the
coast.

It was an easy day's ride from San Fernando
or from Los Angeles, as rides were made in
those days. Although surrounded by a mag-
nificent cattle country, there was but little ship-
ping from its port in the hide droghing days.
Dana, Robinson and others who were on the
coast at. that time make but meager mention
of it. The cattle of its extensive ranchos trans-
ported their own hides and tallow to market,
that is. they were driven to some point near
Santa Barbara or San Pedro for slaughter.

The old mission figured in the Civil war of
1838, when Juan Bautista .-Mvarado and Don
Carlos Carrilio were hostile rivals for the gover-
norship of the territory. The battle of San
r.uenaventura was tiie \Vaterloo of Carrilio. It
was not nuich of a battle, as battles were fought
in the .American Civil war from 1861 to 1865,
but it was the most sanguinary conflict in the
struggle between Northern and Southern Cali-
fornia over which, Los .Vngcles or Monterey,
should be the capital, and who. .Mvarado or
Carrilio, should be governor.

172

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RFXORD.

Castenada, in command of Carrillo's army of
the south, had fallen back from Santa Barbara
on the approach of Castro with the army of the

i north and taken position in^he mission church
of San Buenaventura. Castro pursuing, with
three pieces of artillery, reached San Buenaven-
tura in the night and planted his cannon on
the heights overlooking the mission. In the
morning he summoned Castenada to surrender.
The summons was indignantly rejected, and the
liattle was on. For three days there was a rattle
of nuisketry and a roar of artillery. Each sup-
posed he was annihilating the forces of the
other. On the third night the southern soldiers,
weary of slaughter, attempted to steal out under
the cover of darkness and make their way to
their desolate homes. They did the stealing

•part admirably, but when they had crawled out
they were promptly halted by the enemy lying
in ambush; and as promptly surrendered. After
the battle came the painful duty of burying the
dead and caring for the wounded. There was
but one dead and one wounded — a dead south-
erner and a wounded northerner, or possibly
the reverse (authorities difTer). The mission
building had received several severe wounds.
Castro's marksmen could hit a mission, but not
a man. It is said that there are several of
Castro's cannon balls still embedded in the
adobe walls of the old mission. The battle of
San Buenaventura was the Gettysburg of the
Civil war between the arribanas (uppers) and
the abajanos (lowers).

At the time of the American conquest there
was not so far as known an American settler in
San Buenaventura. Col. Stevenson, when he
was commander of the military district of the
South, in 1847-48, sent Isaac Callahan and W.
O. Streeter to take charge of the mission prop-
erty, which had beeii abandoned by the superin-
tendent. After the organization of Santa Barbara
county the San Buenaventura district con-
stituted a township of that county. November,
1852, an election was called to elect three school
commissioners for the township of San Buena-
ventura, but w-hether any were elected the rec-
ords do not show. The boundaries, as defined
in 1855, are as follows: "First township to ex-
tend from the division line of Los Angeles
county to the Arroyo known as Arroyo del
Rincon. The elections shall be held at the
Mission San Buenaventura." The boundaries
of the school district were the same as those of
the township. The scliool trustees elected in
November, 1855. were Jose A. Pacifico and
Sanchez Rey Olivas.

In December, 1855, John Koselli was teach-
ing a public school at the mission of San Buena-
ventura. The school was taught in the Spanish

language. This was probably the first common
school taught in the district and the pioneer
school of Ventura county.

In 1857 A. Schiappa Pietra, then a resident of
Santa I'.arbara, started the first store in San
Buena\entura. At that time there were but
two places in the whole district where travelers
could be entertained. One was a tent on the
Sespe raiicho and the other a hotel kept in the
east wing of the mission. In 1858, the American
residents were A. M. Conway, Grififin Robbins,
\^•. T. Na.*. \\". 1). Ilobson, McLaughlin an<!
Park.

In 1859 the first attempt was made to form
a county out of the eastern portion of Santa
Barbara. A petition containing 130 names was
sent to the legislature praying for the fomiation
of the county of San Buenaventura.

The Los Angeles Star of January 29, 1859,
commenting on the project, says: "We might,
however, have remained silent, had not the in-
terests of Los Angeles county been brought into
the question. Our informant stated to us tliat
we are to be deprived of Fort Tejon township;
and that according to the petition it w-as to be
incorporated into the new county, giving to us
the Rancho of Conejo or some other place al-
most entirely valueless in exchange. It is an
old maxim not only taught by the fireside, but
spread upon every statute book, that he who
takes from another without his consent is guilty
of robbery. And he who assists in such an act
is equally guilty with the leaders. Has Los An-
geles county been consulted in this matter? We
are certain it has not. Has Tejon district been
asked if it w-ould accede to it? We find no one
who can answer. San Buenaventura then would
like to control not only the 130 persons who are
said to have signed tlie petition, but also the
board of supervisors of Santa Barbara county
and the like body of Los Angeles county. Don
Antonio de la Guerra, chairman of the board
of super\'isors of Santa Barbara, immediately
on hearing of the movement, ordered the clerk
of the county to send the representatives of the
county in the legislature and the senator of
the second district a comparative statement of the
number of votes the would-be new county could
cast; the pro rata amount of debt they w-ould
have to assume ; and requesting these represent-
atives to show to the legislative body the folly
of the undertaking." The Star assures its read-
ers that our delegation in the legislature will
see to it that no "snap judgment" is taken by
these plotters for a new county.

It is rather strange that this county division
project did not carry in that legislature. The leg-
islature of 1859 was a secession body. It passed
;i bill dividing the stale and creatine' the state of

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

173

South California, subject to the approval of the
people. At an election held in the fall of 1859
the proposition was voted upon by the counties
of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Los An-
geles, San Diego, San Bernardino and Buena
Vista. A majority of the voters favored divis-
ion, but the state was not divided. It was a
pro-slavery scheme designed to give the slave-
holders of the south more representation in
congress. The election of Linciiln, in i860, put
an end to the plot. Nothing came of that
county division scheme, either.

In i860, there were but nine American voters
in the precinct of San Buenaventura. The first
survey of a town site was made in 1862, by
Waterman, Vassault & Co., who owned the ex-
mission lands. The first attempt to incorporate
the town was made in 1863. Messrs. Simpson,
Beebe, Stow, Escandon and others met at the
hotel kept by V. A. Simpson and drew up a
petition to the legislature asking for incorpora-
tion. The legislature, probably considering it
too small a matter to waste time on, did nothing
with the petition.

The Noahian deluge of 1861-62 made an in-
land sea of the Santa Clara valley, but did very
little damage. The cattle and horses escaped
to the foothills and the loss of stock was light.
During the famine years of 1863 and 1864 there
was a heavy loss of cattle. The dry years, how-
ever, did not bring about a subdivision of the
ranchos as in Los Angeles. The ranches were
restocked gradually and the old industry, cattle-
raising, continued for a time.

The flood of 1867-68 was more severe than
that of 1861. "On Christmas day, 1867, the wa-
ter rose until it was three feet deep in Main
street (San Buenaventura). The lower portions
of the town were submerged and the inhabitants
had to be removed to a place of safety. The
warm rain falling on and melting the recently
deposited snows of the mountains filled the
rivers to overflowing and caused the flood. The
land from the Santa Clara hotel to the river
was flooded. Forty-seven women were rescued
from the flooded houses and carried on the
backs of horses or on the shoulders of men to
. places of safety."

In 1868 the current of immigration, which for
years had steadily flowed into Central and
Northern California, turned southward. Flic
subdivision of the great ranchos of the south
had begun and cheap farm lands were thrown
on the market. Successive years of abundant
rainfall had obliterated the traces of the "famine
years." Prices of all products were good and
men of small means in Central California, who
had made money by grain-raising on rented
lands, began to look around for homes of their

own. The completion of the first transconti-
nental railroad (the Union and Central Pacific)
in May, i86g, brought many home-seekers to the
coast and some of these drifted southward.

The coast stage line had been established in
1868 on a better basis, and, with increased serv-
ice, running on regular time, attracted land
travel. Heretofore travel up and down the coast
had been almost entirely by steamer; and as the
large passenger steamers did not stop at San
Buenaventura, it had remained comparatively
unknown. The stage passengers coming down
from the mountains on their journey northward
or, rising as it were out of the sea, on their
southward trip, beheld stretched out before
them the valley of the Santa Clara in all its
loveliness and were delighted with the view
and enthusiastic over the country's future pros-
pects.

The following table of distances and stations
gives the line of the old stage route between
Los Angeles, San Buenaventura and Santa Bar-
bara in 1868:

From Los Angeles to Cahuenga Pass

House 9H miles.

To New Station Sj4 '"

To Mountain House (Larry's) ISJ4 "

To Simi Ranch 8^ "

To Las Posas 12 "

To Santa Clara River 10 "

To San Buenaventura 8j4

To Rincon 12

To Santa Barbara 15 "

Total 98^ "

The stage, which carried the daily mail, left
Los Angeles at 6 a. m. and arrived at 8 p. m.
The through time from San Francisco to Los
Angeles by stage was 66 hours. The following
extract taken from Josephine CliiTord's "Trop-
ical California," a series of articles descriptive of
the coast counties from San Luis Obispo south-
ward, published in the Overland Monthly sev-
eral years before Nordhofif's famous letters ap-
peared, gives a pleasing dcscrijition of the stage
ride and of San Buenaventura as she saw it in
1870:

"The regrets I expressed on leaving Santa
Barbara came from my heart; it is a lovely spot,
and even when I went from it I could not but
lean out of the window to catch departing
glimpses of it as it faded more and more from
sight. The stage road winds along by the sea;
the sun was shining, golden, as it seems ever to
shine on these serene, blue ripples of water, and
there was something so (|uieting in the soft
plashing of the waves against the shore that I
laid my head back and, with open eyes, dreamed
■ — dreamed till I fell asleep, and was waked up
again by the sound of water rushing imme-

174

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

diately under the coach. I looked out in bewil-
derment; it was true, the horses were drawing
the coach through the foaming, flashing waves.
The other passengers expressed no concern; so
1, too, remained quiet, and soon found tliat this
was the pleasantest way of traveling along the
coast.

"Twenty-five miles below Santa Barbara lies
San Buenaventura, another old mission, around
which quite a flourishing place has sprung up.
The flimsy, garish frame houses have crowded
themselves in where the olive, the palm, and the
fig-tree once grew in unbroken lines; but now
or.h- patches of ground, covered with giant pear
trees and huge old olives, are visible back of the
fast-growing town. Passing through in the
broad, positive light of noonday, I could look
on these things philosophically and with equa-
nimity; but on my way back from Los Angeles
some time later, in the chill hours of the wan-
ing night, the sight of the place made me feel
sad, almost bitter. Night had not yet lifted her
mantle from the earth as the stage rolled heavily
toward San Buenaventura, and the roar of the
ocean fell on my ear with hollow sound. Soon
I distinguished the bell towers of the Mission
Church, and the tinkling of the bells, just
touched, had a feeble, complaining tone; now
we turn into the one long street of San Buena-
ventura, and in the darkening halls, the clerk of
the hotel shows me into a cheerless room, up-
stairs. I walk to the window — to the rising-
light — and there, in the yard below are those
peerless, graceful palm trees I saw waving and
bending in the dim distance. How pitiful to see
these neglected daughters of the torrid zone
lifting their royal shafts among the stove pipes
and empty dry goods boxes of a country store
back yard. I stretched out my hands lovingly,
and they nodded their proud heads, and flung
their arms to the morning breeze, pointing to
where those clusters of dark olives stood. But
it grows lighter, the stage is at the door, and
bears us rapidly away. In the far east breaks
the cold gray morning — 'those .\m?ricans' are
coming!"

And "those Americans" continued to come;
the "garish frame houses" crowded out the
adobe structures. The age of wood supplanted
the age of unbaked clay, and in turn was
crowded back from the business streets by brick
and stone. The "clusters of dark olives" have
been thinned by the woodman's ax and but two
of the palms nod their proud heads in the morn-
ing breeze. .\nd still "those .\nicricans are
coming," not by stage, but by steam.

Mrs. Clifford's description of a night ride over
the mountains between San l>uen.aventur.i and
Lus .'\ngelcs illustrates sonic of the perils and

inconveniences of travel a third of a century ago:
"We had been ascending the mountain for some
time, when, during a breathing spell given the
horses, the sharp, decided rattle that seems pe-
culiar to just these stages, sounded back to us
from somewhere above, as though it were the
echo of our own wheels. The driver listened a
moment, and then broke out with an abrupt

oath, for which he didn't even apologize. 'D

that fellow! But I'll make him take the out-
side,' he muttered. 'What's the matter?" I
asked apprehensively; 'anything wrong?' 'Oh
no!' with a look over to my side of the road
where the light of the lanterns fell on the trees
that grew up out of the mountain side below
us, and were trying to touch the wheels of our
coach with their top branches — 'nothing at all.
Only he's got to take that side of the road and
take his chances of going over. He'd no busi-
ness coming on me here.'

"The rattling had come nearer all this time
and now a light flashed up a little in front of us
and directly a fiery, steaming monster seemed
rushing down to destroy us. The air had grown
chilly and the horses in the approaching stage
seemed to have cantered down the mountain at
quite a lively gait; for the white steam was issu-
ing from their nostrils and rising in clouds from
their bodies. The six gallant horses, reined up
short and stamping nervously to be let loose for
the onward run, were a noble sight; and the
heavy coach with its two glowing eyes was
grandly swaying in its springs. Our own horses
were blowing little impatient puffs from dis-
tended nostrils, and our coach drawn safely up
on the rocky hillside. Both drivers stopped to
exchange the compliments of the day — or,
rather, the night — our driver speaking in crusty
tones, and, pointing down to where the road
fell ofif steep and precipitous below him, warned
the other driver 'not to run ahead of his time
again.'

"There was nothing remarkable about the
supper we took that night except the bats that
kept coming in at the front door in a perfectly
free-and-easy manner, swarming about our
heads till they thought they knew us. and tiien
settling in their favorite nooks and corners. No--
ticing my imtiring endeavors to prevent them
from inspecting my head and face too closely,
the station keeper observed that people were
'most always afraid of them things when they
first come,' but that they 'needn't fright of them:
they wouldn't hurt nobody.' The rest of the
night was passed inside the stage, though of
sleep there was no thought, such jolting and
jumi)ing over rocks and boulders: I ache all
over to think of it even now! Just before day-
Lreak we entered the City of the .\ngels." * * *

HISTORICAL AND DIOGRArillCAL RECORD.

ir:

San Buenaventura became ambitious to be
classed as a seaport. In January, 1871, a fran-
chise was secured to build a wharf; work was
begun upon it in March; and in February, i$72,
it was so near completion that steamers were
able to discharge their cargoes directly on it.
The next advance was the establishing of a
newspaper. April 22, 1871, appeared the first
number of the Ventura Signal. The editor and
|iroprietor, J. H. Bradley, was a wide-awake,
progressive newspaper man. He directed his
efforts towards building up the prospective
county. He was an earnest and intelligent ad-
vocate of county division and labored to organ-
ize and unify public sentiment in favor of that
measure.

ORGANIZATION Ol'^ THE NEW COUNTY.

After the failure of the attempt to divide
Santa Barbara county in 1859, the scheme fell
into a state of "innocuous desuetude." It was not
given up; only held in abeyance. The people
were biding their time. There were abundant
reasons why the people of the eastern portion
of Santa Barbara should have a county of their
own when they could afford the expense. It
was a long distance to the county seat, and the
journey had to be made over roads that were
next to impassable in the winter time. The
western and more populous part of the county
monopolized the offices; and the most harrow-
ing grievance that the average American office-
seeker can suffer is to have his claims to polit-
ical preferment ignored by his party. Then, too,
Santa Barbara city, which really dominated the
politics of the county, had a large purchasable
clement among its voters, which, under the
leadership and controlled by crafty politicians,
decided the political destiny of aspirants for
office on a coin basis. The advocates of a new
coimty pointed to the many and grievous
wrongs against the right of suffrage commit-
ted by the political bosses of Santa Barbara and
urged a separation from their contaminating
influence. Examples were many.

It is said that at one time when political feel-
ing ran high a whole tribe of Indians were
voted. At another closely contested election
the passenger list of a Panama steamer was
copied and a precinct of 20 voters rolled up 160
votes. The "hole in the wall" election fraud of
1852 was one of the many scandals that shook
confidence in the verdict of the ballot box. At
that election the voter passed his ballot through
a hole in the wall. The election officers, who
were all of one political faith, disposed of the
ballots as seemed good to them. The electors
of the other side had the privilege of voting
carlv and often. If their votes were not coimtcd

at least they had the satisfaction of casting a
goodly number. The registry law of 1866
checked some of the more flagrant abuses, but
bribery, coercion and the open buying of votes
went on for several years afterwards.

Inimignition had brought into the eastern end
of Santa Barbara county a population almost
entirely American, and the desire to cut loose
from the western end with its peculiar election
methods increased as population increased. In
1869, ten years after the failure ofthe first, a sec-
ond effort to form a new county was made. flon.
A. G. Escandon was elected to the assembly
largely on a county division issue, but Santa
Barbara bitterly opposed the scheme when it
came before the legislature and the bill for the
creation of a new county failed to pass.

In the legislature of 1871-72, the measure
•again came* to the front. Hon. W. D. Hobson,
who represented the county divisionists in the
legislature, was successful in carrying the meas-
ure. The bill creating the county of Ventura
was approved March 22, 1872. The boundaries
111 the county are as follows: "Commencing on
the coast of the Pacific ocean at the mouth of
Rincon creek; thence following up the center
n[ said creek to its source; thence due north
to the boundary line of Santa Barbara county;
thence in an easterly direction along the bound-
ary line of Santa Barbara county to the north-
cast corner of the same; thence southerly along
tlic line between the said Santa Barbara county
and Los .Angeles county to the Pacific ocean
and three miles therein; thence in a northwest-
erly direction to a point due south and three
niilc.^ distant from the mouth of Rincon creek;
tlience north to the point of beginning; and in-
chuling the islands of Anacapa and San Nic-

The bill provided for the appointment of five
conuuissioncrs to effect a county organization.
Rarlv in Tanuarv the governor appointed
Thomas R.Bard, S. r.ristol, W. D. F. Richards,
.\. C;. Escandon and C. W. Tliacker.

.\ special election was called for February 25,
1873. to elect county and township officers. The
total vote cast was 608 and the following were
declared elected:

T. l^farion Rrooks. District Attorney.

I". Atollcda. Coiinlv Clerk.

Frank rolcrson. SlierilT.

Jcilni 7.. Barnctt. Connty Assessor.

!■". .\. Edwards, Connty Treasurer.

C. J. Do Merritle, County Surveyor.

F. S. S. Bncknian. County Superintendent of Schools.

Dr. C. L. Bard, Coroner.

The supervisors were James Daly of the first
district, a hold-over from Santa Barbara; J. A.
Conuwav of the second, and C. W. Tliacker of

17G

IllSTORICAl. AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the third district. All the officers except the cor-
oner were Democrats. The coroner had no op-
position or he, too, would have been over-
whelmed by the Democratic tidal wave. Pablo
de la Guerra was the district judge of the sec-
ond district — San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara
and Ventura. Milton Wasson was county judge.
Frank Molleda, county clerk, died a few weeks
after his election and S. M. W. Easley was ap-
pointed to fill the vacancy. The officers having
all qualified and filed their bonds, the county of
Ventura opened for business March 14, 1873.

The offices of the county officials except that
of the treasurer were located in a rented build-
ing on the corner of Main and Palm streets
in what was known as Spear's Hall. San Buena-
ventura owned a jail and this was used jointly
by the town and county until the county jail
was built. A plat for a court house square in
the old mission orchard was deeded to the
county by Bishop Amat; and in 1873 bonds
were issued to the amount of $6,000 by the
county; the town donating $4,000 for the pur-
pose of building a court house and jail. The

project of building a court house in San Buena-
ventura aroused the opposition of other towns
ambitious to be the county seat (particularly
Saticoy and Hueneme), and a court house war
was on with all its bitterness. The court house
nevertheless was built among the century-o

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Full text of "Historical and biographical record of southern California; containing a history of southern California from its earliest settlement to the opening year of the twentieth century"

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